Authors see Hispanic boom as plus
Please read the following article about my new book, Hispanic Heresy, posted in the Lubbock Avalanche Journal, and in HispanicBusiness.com:
Tech authors see Hispanic boom as plus
By Marlena Hartz
AVALANCHE-JOURNAL
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Those who cast the nation's projected Hispanic population boom as a roadblock should take a closer look, according to three Texas Tech scholars. It's actually an economic boon, they say.
"In spite of the vitriol that you hear on cable news and talk radio, we came to the conclusion that Hispanic immigration is actually a very positive thing as it affects the American economy and the United States in general," said one of the scholars, Dallas-area attorney and lecturer Angel Reyes III.
Hispanics contribute nearly a trillion dollars annually to the economy, and the money filters to all sectors of the population, Tech business professors Bradley Ewing and James Wetherbe and Reyes, their former MBA student, found.
Reyes, Wetherbe and Ewing studied what the Hispanic population boom means for the country in a new book, "Hispanic Heresy: What is the Impact of America's Largest Population of Immigrants?"
Mead Publishing released the 120-page book in February. The authors, all of different political leanings, said they tried to approach the issue in a non-partisan way, letting data, statistics and the country's history of immigration tell the story.
By 2050, the U.S. Census Bureau projects one in three U.S. residents will be Hispanic. The Hispanic population in the U.S. is projected to nearly triple, from 46.7 million to 132.8 million by 2050, according to a 2008 Census Bureau study.
"What a tremendous opportunity. That is the work force and the face of the future of America," Reyes said.
In half that time, Texas will have become a minority-majority state, according to another projection. By 2025, the Hispanic population in Texas will have grown from about 8.3 million to 13.4 million, according to projections from the Texas State Data Center.
The expected growth is not just a result of immigration, but increasingly the result of a higher birthrate among the Hispanic population, citizens and non-citizens, according to the Tech authors.
Reyes said problems with illegal immigration are well publicized: Illegal immigrants can burden the educational, social welfare and medical care systems because income tax may not be collected and labor abuse may occur. But if Americans can find a way to bring illegal immigrants into the social structure, the country would benefit, he said.
An estimated 12 million illegal immigrants live in America.
Historically, immigrants have taken entry-level jobs in the U.S. and have a strong drive to achieve the American dream, which can be good for the economy, the authors said.
"People who want all...illegal immigrants to go home...they have failed miserably in their civics and history classes," Reyes said.
Hispanic consumers could be one of the most important groups for business owners to reach in coming years as demographics in the country shift, said Ewing, who is a chaired Jerry S. Rawls Professor in Operations Management.
Just as industries tapped into the buying power of millions of baby boomers, they may want to tap into the buying power of millions of Hispanics, who as a whole will be younger than other groups in the overall aging nation, Ewing said.
Hispanics are currently less educated and make less money than other populations in the U.S., but they're gaining earning power and education at faster rates than other populations, Ewing said.
They comprised 12 percent of full-time graduate and undergraduate college students in 2007, up from 10 percent in 2006, according to Census Bureau figures released this month.
The book uncovers inequalities Hispanics face in the nation.
Historically, they have a tougher time rebounding in college classrooms and in the workplace after economic lulls, according to the three Tech scholars.
College enrollment rates fluctuate more substantially for Hispanics than for whites during economic slumps, Ewing said. Companies more quickly lay off Hispanic workers and it takes slightly longer for Hispanics to find new jobs than whites, he said.
On average, Hispanics have less education and are younger than whites in the country, which could account for some of the job disparities, the professor said.
In the courts, English-speaking Hispanics fare better in trials than their non-English-speaking counterparts, the authors found. A non-English-speaking Hispanic is 15 percent less likely than an English speaker to obtain a better jury trial verdict than the last settlement offer, they found.
©2009 Angel Reyes
www.ReyesLaw.com
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