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Hispanics in U.S. Report Optimism
August 6, 2003
By SIMON ROMERO and JANET ELDER
A new survey of the nation's Hispanics finds they are far
more optimistic about life in the United States and their
children's prospects than are non-Latinos, despite the fact
that many are much poorer and many do not intend to gain
the full benefits of citizenship.
The New York Times/CBS News poll found that nearly 70
percent of foreign-born Hispanics say they identify more
with the United States than with their country of origin.
Still, many continue to send money to family members even
though they rarely visit their home countries.
Sixty-four percent of Latinos said there was no specific
instance when they felt discriminated against because of
their ethnicity. Those who said they had had such an
experience said it involved employment or a general sense
of exclusion.
The finding was in sharp contrast to that of the poll's
non-Hispanic blacks. Seventy-three percent of them said
they had experienced discrimination, while 25 percent said
they had not.
Much of the optimism expressed by Latinos appears to be
related to the fact that most, 57 percent, said they were
immigrants. Just 39 percent said they were born in the
United States, making it clear that the expectation of
better economic circumstances for themselves and their
children was inherent in their decision to uproot their
lives and come to the United States.
Follow-up interviews with some respondents revealed the
extent to which economic opportunities had fueled their
decision to immigrate. Sixty-six percent of foreign-born
Hispanics said they moved north looking for jobs and other
opportunities, while only 9 percent said freedoms were an
incentive and 6 percent said a search for a different
culture or lifestyle encouraged them to come to the United
States.
"In Mexico one can study and study but there's no good work
when you finish school," said Sylvia González, 39, a
custodian in Denver who moved to Colorado from the Mexican
state of Morelos. "Here we do the jobs that no one wants to
do because we know the value of work. Here we understand
that the person without a job is the person who does not
have the will to work."
Only 9 percent of Latinos said they thought immigrants
coming to the United States took jobs away from American
citizens, compared with 33 percent of non-Hispanics and 34
percent of non-Hispanic blacks. Eighty-two percent of
Hispanics said immigrants took jobs Americans did not want.
The Times and CBS News nationwide telephone poll of 3,082
adults included 1,074 Hispanics and was taken over a
two-week period, July 13-27. It has a margin of sampling
error of plus or minus three percentage points overall and
four percentage points for Hispanics.
The poll was offered to respondents in Spanish and English.
About half of the Latino respondents chose to have the poll
conducted in Spanish. About a third of those who responded
in Spanish said they did not speak any English.
People of Mexican origin account for about two-thirds of
the nation's Hispanics, making immigration flows from
Mexico and Mexico's economic situation strong factors in
the fast-evolving Hispanic population, which has become the
nation's largest minority group.
Smaller Latino communities link their backgrounds to Puerto
Rico or El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Cuba and other
countries.
Throughout the poll there were signs that Hispanics who
were not born in the United States were even more
optimistic than those who were born here. For instance,
when asked if life for the next generation would be better
or worse than life today, 64 percent of Hispanics born in
the United States said it would be better, but 83 percent
of foreign-born Hispanics said so.
"Part of the assimilation process is feeling stable enough
to criticize the system," said Gregory Rodriguez, a Los
Angeles-based senior fellow at the New America Foundation.
"There is a sense of ascendancy in places with large
numbers of Latinos, like Los Angeles, that is especially
palpable among recent arrivals. Whether that's transformed
into something real or not remains to be seen."
Only 39 percent of non-Hispanics said they expected a
better life for the next generation. In a question about
the opportunities for Hispanics to get ahead versus those
for other ethnic groups, majorities of Latinos - both those
born in the United States and those born elsewhere - said
the opportunities were largely the same.
But 29 percent of Latinos born here and 36 percent of those
who are foreign-born said the opportunities for advancement
were better for Hispanics than for other groups. A majority
of Latinos, 60 percent, said it was still possible to start
out poor in this country, work hard, and become rich,
compared with 72 percent of non-Hispanics.
"Right now I think Hispanics are getting more attention
than before, there are more Hispanics getting hired," said
Gloria Guzman, 62, a retired cafeteria clerk in Monahans,
Tex. "My daughter doesn't think there is prejudice and I
think there is. My daughter married a white guy. She has
not gone through a lot of those things, that's why my
daughter doesn't think there's prejudice."
Differences in responses about discrimination were also
pronounced in respondents' dealings with the police. When
dealing with the police on traffic violations or other
minor offenses, 58 percent of Latinos said they thought
they would most likely be treated the same as everyone
else, 28 percent said they would be given a harder time
than others and 7 percent said they would be treated better
than most other people.
But for non-Hispanic blacks, encounters with law
enforcement are far more negative. Forty-two percent said
they would be treated the same as others, 55 percent said
they would be treated worse and 2 percent said they would
be treated better than most.
Hispanics said they believed the portrayal of the Hispanic
experience by the media and in television shows was mostly
accurate, but non-Hispanics disagreed. A majority, 64
percent, of Hispanics said the national media did an
accurate job of reporting news about Hispanic issues.
Non-Hispanics disagreed, with a plurality, 42 percent,
saying the media were not reporting these issues
accurately.
Language was important, however, in how Latinos said their
experience was portrayed in the media.
Hispanics who mainly watch Spanish-language television and
listen to Spanish language radio are more likely to say the
news media do an accurate job of reporting Hispanic-related
issues than those who get their news from English-speaking
programming.
Eight out of 10 Latinos who rely on Spanish programming
said the news media were accurate in their reporting of
Hispanic issues. Only 12 percent said the Spanish-language
news media were not accurate. That was in sharp contrast to
Latinos who rely on English-language programming, with
almost half saying the news media were not accurate is
discussing Hispanic issues.
Thirty-three percent of Latinos said they followed news and
events in Latin America very closely and 26 percent said
they followed Latin American affairs somewhat closely,
higher figures than for non-Hispanics.
"It's undercovered," Frank Termini, 57, a school
psychologist in Ossining, N.Y., and one of the respondents,
said in a follow-up interview. "And that applies to the
countries of origin as well as to Hispanics here."
About half of Hispanics said most of what they watched on
television or listened to on the radio was in English as
were most of the books, magazines and newspapers they to
read.
Latinos tend to be younger than non-Latinos and also
poorer, the poll showed. Thirty-six percent of Hispanics
said they were ages 18 to 29, compared with 20 percent of
non-Hispanics and 27 percent of non-Hispanic blacks. Nearly
half of Latinos had total family incomes of $30,000 a year
or less, with 19 percent of Hispanics subsisting on less
than $15,000 a year. Fewer than 1 in 10 Latinos had total
household incomes of more than $75,000.
One of the most striking differences between Latinos and
non-Latinos is related to citizenship ambitions. Only 23
percent of foreign-born Hispanics are Americans citizens,
compared with 69 percent of foreign-born non-Hispanics.
Thirty-six percent of Latinos said they had no plans to
apply for citizenship, while just 7 percent of
non-Hispanics said they would never attempt to become a
citizen.
Those figures may have more to do with ability than
aspiration, immigration experts said, since many Hispanics
illegally in the country are not able to begin the
naturalization process.
Poll interviewers did not ask respondents whether they were
in the country illegally. While estimates vary
considerably, about 35 to 45 percent of foreign-born
Hispanic adults in the United States are thought to be here
illegally, or about 5 million people, said Roberto Suro,
director of the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/06/national/06POLL.html?ex=1061180453&ei=1&en=8cc9dea60de0e8ac
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