50 Percent of LA Workforce Are Immigrants
| AR Articles on the Demographic Transformation |
|---|
| Writing on the Wall (Aug. 2001) |
| Birth Rates: Who is Winning the Race? (Nov. 2000) |
| If We Do Nothing (Jun. 1996) |
| More news stories on the Demographic Transformation |
Los Angeles is at the leading edge of a U.S. demographic trend, with half of its workforce immigrants, many of them unskilled and speaking little English.
As baby boomers retire, the same pattern will emerge across the country, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. Demographers estimate that by 2025 most of the growth in the workforce will be from immigrants.
Ernesto Cortes Jr., Southwest regional director of the Industrial Areas Foundation, said Los Angeles is at a crossroads.
“The question is: Are we going to be a 21st century city with shared prosperity, or a Third World city with an elite group on top and the majority at poverty or near poverty wages?” he asked. “Right now we’re headed toward becoming a Third World city. But we can change that.”
The Migration Policy Institute used U.S. Census data to determine that one-third of immigrants have not graduated from high school and 60 percent do not speak English fluently.
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(Posted on April 21, 2008)
Comments
Ah, yes, Senor Cortes.
Let me translate for the gringo audience, if I may.
What you mean is that LA can either be like every major city in Mexico, with an ignorant non-Spanish-speaking welfare underclass or LA can be like America.
I hate to break it to you, but LA as an underclass city is virtually unsoppable. No one knows how to educate the ignorant Mexican masses, certainly not the Mexican white overclass such as yourself.
After all, you have had over 500 years to do something with your erstwhile Spanish slaves, but decided to keep abusing them instead. Now, of course, you want to blame their suffering on Americans, and export their suffering and hungry mouths to OUR fair land.
Sadly, Senor Cortes, we cannot cure your 500 year old habits of genocide, greed and abuse. Gringos and gringo culture are powerful, but not God-like.
Posted by Big Bill at 6:36 PM on April 21
This is the problem with California and why we’re so fed up living here. We’re very seriously considering moving our family to Idaho. Can anybody here give me some advice as to which area in Idaho would be a good place to settle for my husband, myself and our 4 young daughters? The less “diverse and vibrant” the better.
Posted by Karen at 7:08 PM on April 21
“Right now we’re headed toward becoming a Third World city. But we can change that.”
Sure, if you say so. Forming a circle, holding hands and singing “Kumbaya” will probably help.
Posted by at 8:04 PM on April 21
The only way they are going to change that is to send them all back to their own countries! We can deal with our own people, but not their people.
Posted by at 8:49 PM on April 21
“Right now we’re headed toward becoming a Third World city. But we can change that.”
Yes, you can change it, but you won’t, because driving every illegal from our midst is the only solution. And ‘Headed toward’? Any city I’ve ever visited that looked like LA required a passport to get in.
“The question is: Are we going to be a 21st century city with shared prosperity, or a Third World city with an elite group on top and the majority at poverty or near poverty wages?”
Too late. LaRaza gangster Tony and his minions rule as the new ‘elite group’, perfectly recreating the loser-land of poverty, corruption, violence and lawlessness they fled from. LA will not survive their rule. 21st century? It can only happen when all of the illegals and their anchors leave forever. No amount of money, no new law, or any other worthless feel-good rescue plan can drag them into becoming something they are not, or reverse the de-volution of California and LA into third world existence. Amnesty as a solution? That would only be the bullet in the head. Enforcement of the law is the kind of ‘change’ we need to see, not more inaction. CA and LA are clearly unwilling to deliver on the responsibilities they owe their citizens, as well as the rest of the U.S., and we should return the favor. Cut off the money.
Posted by Edward at 9:06 PM on April 21
There’s a reason why they call it “Lost Angeles”. I really don’t see any hope for this place without a white majority. Hispanics and blacks have already destroyed their neighborhoods, meanwhile Chinese people have notable 3rd world qualities about themselves as well. I’ve heard their average IQ is 100, but I’ve never seen it, even while working in professional positions. And they all live in homogenous communities, guess they didn’t get the message about diversity?
Just think what this place was like in the 40’s & 50’s, a relative paradise by today’s standards. Goodbye LA, it was nice knowing you.
Posted by Mark at 9:29 PM on April 21
los angeles will be like mexico city within 5 years. if it hasn’t been burned to the ground or hit by a massive earthquake by then.
Posted by dmz at 11:58 PM on April 21
And they wonder why there are so many mistakes made in Hospitals. No one can speak English!
Posted by flyingtiger at 12:03 AM on April 22
My family moved to Tennessee from California a couple years back and we haven’t regretted our decision. People here speak English, they fly American flags - not Mexican ones, they support the troops and they love America.
However, I see the wave of Hispanics coming - Hispanic business signs are going up, you see large groups of Hispanics at WalMart, job listings in the area are advertising for bilingual positions, schools are having to hire special bilingual teachers to teach the non-English speaking kids, etc.
Most people that are from TN are sheltered from the problems in states like California and don’t realize the problems that are coming. It’s like when a stray cat shows up, you feel sorry for it and want to help so you give it a small bowl of food. Then one day you’ve got 500 cats outside your house, all wanting you to feed and care for them.
Posted by at 7:53 AM on April 22
“The question is: Are we going to be a 21st century city with shared prosperity, or a Third World city with an elite group on top and the majority at poverty or near poverty wages?” he asked. “Right now we’re headed toward becoming a Third World city. But we can change that.”
Can we change that? LA and New York City are the demographic models for our privileged liberal elite. They want the rest of the country to resemble those two places. Meanwhile, the hypocrites move to the Northwest, Vermont or Maine, and live in exclusive gated communities. Their day will come no doubt.
Posted by Sardonicus at 9:12 AM on April 22
It’s all about the future coming of Aztlan - that supposedly mythical nation that will encompass the former American Southwest, as well as northern Mexico. It will be a Hispanic nation. And the United States will fracture. Look what’s happened around the world, with the breakup of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, and the constant turmoil in African countries. Aztlan is surely on the horizon. Depressing news, to be sure, but it’s better to admit it could happen than to stick one’s head in the sand and pretend otherwise.
Posted by Matt at 10:31 AM on April 22
I was in Kalifornia a couple years ago and lasted only seven months! I agree totally with the 7:53 poster, the whites in these communities have no clue as to the mess these illegals have made in other parts of our country. Any where they settle, they turn into a barrio. I am in North Carolina and on the rare occasions I find myself in Walmart, they are everywhere!
Posted by flyboy at 11:58 AM on April 22
I recently saw a Globe Trekker show on Public Television on LA. It featured a white woman moving through LA, Hollywood and even Watts and East LA. What stood out was the dearth of white people in the background footage or in the features. I think it was made around 2000, so just imagine. But the real ridiculous feature is that the host pretended to not notice that and instead tried to “celebrate the diversity that is LA!” But she got to leave when the show ended. Funny also is that the show did not offer places to eat or stay as they usually do, except for a taco stand in East LA.
But what really stood out to me was the early section on Hollywood and the obligatory “Star-spotting” venture. It turns out that now anyone can take a photo or short film with their cell phone and get paid for it. So when one lonely, staturesque blonde (I don’t know who it was) walked out of a boutique, she was mobbed by a bunch of little brown people, snapping photos and trying to get her to look their way. It was like watching an endangered species in a Wild Safari park with no supervision. She was a creature completely out of place in her setting, but idolized for her beauty and differentness by a mob of inferiors. It was so hauntingly obvious - I couldn’t get to sleep Sunday night because of my shock.
Posted by Whiteplight at 2:24 PM on April 22
I bet you, if our grand parents (great-grand parents) who fought in WW II saw what has become of the US today, they wouldn’t have bothered manning those troop carrier ships.
Posted by RealityCheck at 2:36 PM on April 22
I just heard that Sen. Clinton is urging that Hispanics be “accommodated.” That is, Spanish must be offered to non-English speaking Hispanic citizens. That seems like an oxymoron. I thought to be a citizen, one of the requirements is a spoken and writting proficiency in English. If you can’t speak English, how do you know what’s going on? I guess someone can tell you who’s promising the most “goodies,” and you go from there. Other nationalities have come in past time and with no help, learned English. I guess we have to assume that Hispanics can not learn easily, not do they care to as long as they are being “accommodated.”
Posted by June at 4:21 PM on April 22
you can move all you want but at the end of the day as long as liberals dominate and welfare, food stamps, WIC, medicaid, free lunch, free schooling exist these third worlders will come to your home
Posted by enraged at 4:54 PM on April 22
I live in SoCal. LA area. It’s beyond description how we were trampled on here. Beyond description.
Posted by Unemployed WASP at 6:30 PM on April 22
Will we ever start using the Correct Terminology when refering to this group of people? They are NOT IMMIGRANTS they are ILLEGAL INVADERS, how could we ever begin to correct a problem that just might have already reached the point of no return. These people leave a country they turned into a third world ghetto, come to America demanding we live according to their rules which have already shown the result they will produce, and we allow them to do so without any REAL protest on our part.
Posted by at 10:01 AM on April 23