Survey Paints Vivid Portrait of U.S. Latinos

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

By Jeffrey Thomas US INFO Staff Writer Washington -- American Latinos have a growing sense of pan-ethnic identity in addition to their sense of being Americans, overwhelmingly want to learn English but also want to pass Spanish to the next generation, and tend to assimilate rapidly into American culture. These are among the most significant findings of a new survey of Latino Americans that offers the broadest understanding to date of Latino political and social life in the United States.

Four years in the making, the Latino National Survey was conducted by bilingual interviewers between November 2005 and August 2006 in 15 states and the District of Columbia. The 165-item survey polled more than 8,600 Latinos in the U.S. general population -- not just citizens or voters. Key findings from the survey were presented December 7 at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.

The Latino population is expected to grow from 13 percent of the U.S. population in 2000 to 23 percent by 2030, according to Michael Jones-Correa, a professor at Cornell University and a principal investigator in the survey. “Latinos,” however, is not the term this group would choose for themselves: When asked, Latinos preferred the term “Hispanic” to “Latino” by 35 percent to 13 percent, with the remaining respondents accepting either term.

The growing sense of pan-ethnic identity among Latinos is particularly pronounced among women, the survey found. Moreover, the sense of pan-ethnicity increases with education. Having a pan-ethnic sense of identity does not mean that today’s Latinos lack identities as Americans or have lost all sense of ties to their countries of origin. Almost two-thirds of Latinos feel strongly American, the survey found.

“Being Latino is an American identity,” explained John Garcia, one of the survey’s principal investigators. People have multiple identities, according to Garcia, a political science professor at University of Arizona. Identity “is not an either-or,” he says. A large majority of Puerto Rican Americans, for example, feel they are Americans, Puerto Ricans and Latinos all at the same time. Most Mexican Americans, the survey found, feel a similar sense of being Americans, Mexicans and Latinos simultaneously, which is remarkable given how many Mexican Americans were born in Mexico, Garcia said.

POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS

Garcia believes the growing pan-ethnic identification of Latinos “creates a significant opportunity for political mobilization.

”At present, Latinos as a whole identify by a 2-to-1 margin with the Democratic Party. But when one looks solely at Latinos who are naturalized citizens able to vote, as many Latinos identify with the Republican Party as with the Democratic Party, while one-quarter call themselves “independents.

”Asked what they consider the most important issue facing the country, Latinos, like other Americans, see Iraq as the Number 1 issue (30 percent). But, when asked what they consider the biggest issue facing Latinos, Iraq recedes as an issue and illegal immigration moves to the fore. Latinos overwhelmingly would like to see immediate legalization of those who are present in the United States illegally, and they overwhelmingly oppose denying illegal immigrants access to education.

This “new body of data can better inform the sometimes vitriolic discourse” that surrounds the subject of immigration, according to Luis Fraga, a Stanford University professor who was one of the principal investigators on the survey.Latinos see their fate as linked somewhat or significantly with that of African Americans, although about one-quarter of Latinos feel themselves strongly in competition with African Americans for jobs.When it comes to race, only a tiny percentage of Latinos regard themselves as black (0.8 percent) and less than one-quarter as white, while more than two-thirds view themselves as belonging to some other race. In fact, 51 percent of Latinos view Latino/Hispanic as a separate race.

Skin tone is somewhat related to racial identity, the survey found. Those who considered themselves lightest-skinned identified most strongly with being American, while those of darker skin tone identified less so.

Most Latinos are following assimilation patterns not much different from those of other earlier immigrant groups, the survey found. The first generation assimilates rapidly, with only 15 percent following politics in their country of origin. Contact with family and remittances to their country of origin decline over time, until, by the fourth generation, only 10 percent still have family ties and send remittances.Almost 92 percent of Latinos say it is very important to learn English, and almost another 7 percent say it is somewhat important.

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