Study reveals facts underneath the myths of Latino migration to rural communities

A new study "suggests that many 'facts' that are taken for granted on the immigration issue simply do not hold up to the evidence," University of Kentucky sociologist Patrick H. Mooney writes in the Daily Yonder.

The study was done by Dr. Martha Crowley, a sociologist at North Carolina State University, and Dr. Daniel Lichter, a scholar at Cornell University’s Bronfennbrenner Life Course Center. It looked at 1990 and 2000 census data on population and economic growth, poverty, crime, unemployment and public assistance.

They set up three categories: Rural counties with traditionally large Latino populations, those that experienced a significant rise in the Latino population in the 10-year period, and rural counties with no Latino growth. They found that rates of poverty and unemployment declined in all three. Counties with increased in-migration of Latinos had the lower percentages.

The study found that high Latino in-migration "may dampen income opportunities for African-Americans," since blacks' rate of growth in per capita income was lowest in counties with significant jumps in Latino population. The proportion of the population receiving public assistance was also lowest in the high-growth counties, but there was increased stress on local schools and hospitals.

While retail sales and median home values rose more sharply in areas with high growth, those same counties still had the highest rates of violent crime and property crime arrests even though those numbers were on the decline. "In other words, in-migration correlated with declining rates of arrest," Mooney writes. (Read more)