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Agricultura y Recursos Naturales

Posts Tagged: demographics

Latinos closing digital divide with their smartphones

As high school graduations wind down, most students know they’re not done with school if they want to have a decent job as adults. But more schooling isn’t all they need. Any degree of a successful future hinges on having access to the Internet. Research has shown that computer ownership and Internet use are both strongly associated with income.

Whether it’s researching assignments, Googling information, performing job searches, networking with mentors, teachers and prospective employers, etc. anyone who is Internet savvy is recognized as being equipped for 21st Century demands of the job market.

It used to be people worried about the ‘digital divide.’ The have’s versus the have-nots. But a new Census report, Computer and Internet Use in the United States, shows that the digital divide is shrinking, but not due to all families having broadband access at home. On the contrary, according to the report, home access to the internet is the one area where the digital divide still exists to some degree.

In 2011, 76.2 percent of non-Hispanic White households and 82.7 percent of Asian households reported Internet use at home, compared with 58.3 percent of Hispanic households and 56.9 percent of Black households.

The U.S. Census found that people, of all demographics, are accessing the Internet from more than just the traditional computer. They are using tablets and, most of all, their smartphones — and in this area, Latinos are gaining lost ground.

While 27 percentage points separated the highest and lowest reported rates of home Internet use (Asians 78.3 percent and Hispanics 51.2 percent), a smaller gap of 18 percentage points emerged once smartphone use was factored into overall connectivity rates (Asians 83.0 percent and Hispanics 65.5 percent).

The prevalence of Latinos having smartphones has been an ongoing trend. In fact, Latinos have long been identified as being early adopters of mobile phones. In a 2012 analysis, it was reported that 28 percent of Latinos were more likely to own a mobile phone than non-Hispanic whites.

Smartphone usage is becoming more common and it starts early. SocialLens Research reports that “the rapid adoption of smartphone technology and affordable family plans are leading to children being given access to mobile phones at earlier ages. For Latino children, the average age is 12. And in the next six months, 43% of moms surveyed are planning to get children younger than 12 years old their first phone. In some families, children as young as 5 years of age.”

Fifty-three percent of Latino children who own a smartphone use it to access the Internet, not necessarily social media sites. The number one use for their smartphones, according to SocialLens, (86%) is sending and receiving texts with phone calls coming in second at 83 percent.

There’s no denying that Internet skills and access to cyberspace are irrefutable tools of the present and smartphones are handy devices to even out that unleveled playing field. However, book reports, research papers, dissertations, etc. can’t be written on smartphones.

Until more Latino families can afford home computers and broadband services, the divide will persist — not in access to the Internet but in producing the kind of work that distinguishes students and employees from their peers and keeps them on track to having a successful future in the 21st Century.

Source: Published originally on Latinalista.com as New report shows Latinos closing digital divide — with their smartphones, June 10, 2013.

Posted on Tuesday, September 3, 2013 at 2:41 PM
  • Author: Latinalista.com

Ethnic Umbrellas

In my last blog -Hispanic or Latino?- I discussed the distinctions between ethnic — particularly Hispanic — heritage, identity, and culture. I ended by posing this question: beyond the sharing of a pan-Latino identity, does a U.S. Hispanic culture really exist? Or are Hispanic and Latino merely convenient umbrella terms for embracing the various U.S. ethnic cultures rooted in Spain and the different Spanish-American nations?

Let’s begin by comparing Hispanic with four other common ethnic umbrella terms: European-American, Asian-American, African-American and Native-American. Certainly they all share the characteristics of having a geographical reference point. But beyond that, distinctions appear.

European-American is probably the least complicated term. It refers to Americans whose ancestry derives primarily from Europe. Yet European-Americans spring from nations with vastly different languages and cultures.

Similarly, Asian-American refers to Americans whose ancestry derives from Asia. They, too, spring from myriad languages and cultures. Yet there is disagreement over where to draw the line between Asian Americans and Middle Eastern Americans or whether they should all be placed within one convenient cohort.

Like the previous umbrella terms, African-American refers to Americans whose ancestry derives from a continent, in this case Africa. In U.S. popular parlance, however, African-American does not refer to all people of continental African ancestry, but rather only to those categorized racially in the United States as Black Americans.

Native-American refers to Americans whose ancestry derives from the hundreds of Indian cultures, with a myriad of languages, currently situated within the current boundaries of the United States. However, as commonly used, Native-American does not generally include those of Latin American indigenous origins.

So what about Hispanics? Unlike European-Americans and Asian-Americans, Hispanics generally share a common ancestral language — Spanish. Unlike African Americans, Hispanics do not all come from one racial origin (race as used popularly in the United States, not as a scientific term). Like Native Americans, many Hispanics have familial roots in this land before it became part of the current United States. However, unlike most Native Americans, tens of millions of Hispanics have immigrant roots.

In short, Hispanic is a unique umbrella concept. It is unique because it embraces both those with immigrant roots and those whose ancestors were here before the United States came to them. It is also unique because, unlike the other umbrella terms, it refers to a multiracial people with a common ancestral language and, in some respects, widely-shared cultural characteristics. It is that uniqueness that I will further explore in my next blog.

Source: Published originally on Univision Hispanic Insights Blog as “Ethnic Umbrellas” by Dr. Carlos Cortés, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, Riverside, February 23, 2013.

Posted on Monday, March 25, 2013 at 3:29 PM
  • Author: Dr. Carlos Cortés, University of California, Riverside

Hispanic or Latino?

Quite regularly I get asked, “What’s the right word, Hispanic or Latino?” In truth, there is no right word. Group labels, like beauty, are in the eye of the beholder. Group labels – in fact, all labels – are mainly verbal conveniences. They emerge; they change and they disappear.

This brings me back to the Hispanic or Latino label. Some of us prefer only one or the other. Alternately, for some of us (myself included), either word is fine. Others prefer a national origin label (but also don’t mind Hispanic or Latino, either), and yet others like just being called American.

My father, who grew up in Guadalajara, was a proud Mexican and a proud American. He used both of those labels to describe himself. But he never referred to himself as either a Hispanic or a Latino, that is, until around the end of the 1960’s, when he became more deeply involved in politics and began working closely with people of other Latin American extractions.

Soon after the federal government decided upon the term Hispanic. Since then, with this official backing, Hispanic seems to have gained the upper hand in public discourse. For example, newly-formed umbrella organizations are generally adopting the word Hispanic in their name, although many still use Latino and some even use other terms, including the combo Hispanic-Latino. Question No. 8 of the 2010 Census presented both options, asking, “Is Person 1 of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin?”

But if the Hispanic term has gained the current upper hand, Latino lives on. And so do Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Dominican, Guatemalan, Colombian, and the rest. We’ve become increasingly comfortable using both an umbrella term and a specific origin term as complementary parts of our identity.

If we want to split hairs – and we academics are professionals at doing so – we could point out a nuanced difference.

Technically, Latino should include Brazilians (but not Spaniards), while Hispanic should include Spaniards (but not Portuguese-speaking Brazilians). However, for the most part, Hispanic and Latino seem to be used interchangeably for our community. Yet, particularly due to the growing number of intermarriage offspring, determining precisely who belongs to our community is becoming much trickier.

So don’t bother asking anybody which is the right word for my people. You’ll probably just get a personal preference, no matter how passionately or authoritatively it is expressed.

For most of us, whether you use Latino or Hispanic isn’t that big a deal. Just recognize that we are and that I am.

Source: Published originally on Univision Hispanic Insights Blog as “Hispanic or Latino” by Dr. Carlos Cortés, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, Riverside, February 19, 2013.

Posted on Monday, March 18, 2013 at 8:19 AM
  • Author: Dr. Carlos Cortés, University of California, Riverside

Census tracks 20 years of sweeping change

The USA is bigger, older, more Hispanic and Asian and less wedded to marriage and traditional families than it was in 1990, according to a story published in USA Today. It also is less enamored of kids, more embracing of several generations living under one roof, more inclusive of same-sex couples, more cognizant of multiracial identities, more suburban, less rural and leaning more to the South and West.

One of the most significant demographic trends of the past 20 years is the explosive growth of Hispanics. Now at 50 million, almost one in six Americans, Hispanics have more than doubled their numbers in 1990.
The Hispanic boom has spread far beyond traditional immigrant gateways such as California and Florida, altering the American landscape in states such as Kansas and North Carolina.

Just more than 1% of North Carolina 6.6 million residents were Hispanic in 1990. In 2010: Almost 7% of 9.5 million people were.

Asians grew at a similarly rapid rate but they still account for a small share of the population (4.7%). Since 2000, more Asians were added (4.3 million) to the population than blacks (3.7 million).

Hispanics surpassed blacks in 2003. African Americans' presence in some traditional strongholds is shrinking. They are leaving cities and heading for the suburbs or returning to the South.

The end of the first decade of the 21st century marks a turning point in the nation's social, cultural, geographic, racial and ethnic fabric. It's a shift so profound that it reveals an America that seemed unlikely a mere 20 years ago, one that will influence the nation for years to come in everything from who is elected to run the country, states and cities to what type of houses will be built and where.

The metamorphosis over just two decades stuns even demographers and social observers.

"An entire Venezuela's worth of Hispanics was added in just those two decades," says Robert Lang, an urban sociologist at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. That's about 30 million, or half of the nation's growth since 1990.

"By 2050, Americans will look back at the controversies around immigration, controversies about diversity and wonder what the big deal was," Lang says.

The traditional nuclear family, one or two adults and their young children, continues to ebb. In its place, a grab bag of alternatives has appeared or begun growing after decades of decline.

Among families, various forms of three generations under one roof; adult children returning to their parents' home, sometimes with a spouse and their own children or both; blended families that include stepparents or stepchildren; and extended families that include a parent, a child, cousins and others, related or not.

A growing share of homes includes more than one generation of a family. The average household size has stopped shrinking and begun to grow for the first time in a half-century, partly buoyed by the influx of immigrant families.

Immigrants are more likely to have young children and live with siblings, parents or other relatives. By one broad definition, 16% of U.S. households are multigenerational (two or more), up from 14% in 1990, according to the Pew Research Center. The Census defines multigenerational as three or more generations of the same family. In 2010, they made up 4% of households.

Only one-third of households now have children, and the share of households that have kids under age 18 dropped in 95% of counties, changing the flavor of neighborhoods in cities and suburbs.

One of the biggest changes is the delay and eclipse of marriage. Half of women who marry wait until 26 to do so, up from 24 in 1990. For men, half don't marry until they are older than 28, up from 26.

Part of the delay may stem from higher education levels. Women have made such giant leaps that they now dominate men at every level of higher education in earning degrees. The most recent Department of Education statistics show that 51% of doctoral degrees went to women in 2007-08, up from 42% in just 10 years.

The educational gender gap is widening, but men's life expectancy, still lagging women's, is rising at a faster rate.

Source: USA Today, Census tracks 20 years of sweeping change, August 10, 2011.

Posted on Monday, October 10, 2011 at 9:59 AM
  • Posted By: Myriam Grajales-Hall
  • Written by: USA Today

Latino population growing slower than in other states

The Hispanic/Latino population in California grew at a substantially slower clip over the past decade than in the rest of the nation, according to figures released yesterday by the U.S. Census Bureau, and reported by Californiawatch.org.

From 2000 to 2010, the U.S. Hispanic/Latino population grew 43 percent to nearly 50.5 million. More than half the nation's total population growth during this decade was due to the increase in the Hispanic/Latino population, which represents 16.3 percent of the country.

During the same time, California added about 3 million Hispanics or Latinos – an increase of nearly 28 percent. Still, at 34 million, California has the largest Hispanic/Latino population in the country.

Nationwide, population growth varied by group, with the number of people of Mexican origin increasing by 54 percent. Puerto Ricans grew by 36 percent, and Cubans by 44 percent. Hispanics or Latinos of other origins increased by 22 percent.

More than 11.4 million Mexicans – 36 percent – lived in California last year. California was also home to more Guatemalans, Salvadorans and other Hispanic/Latino groups than was any other state.

Hispanics or Latinos were the majority of the population in 82 of the country's 3,143 counties – including nine in California: Imperial, Monterey, San Benito, Fresno, Madera, Merced, Kings, Tulare and Colusa.

They were also the majority of the population in 17 California cities and neighborhoods: Inglewood (51 percent), Anaheim (53 percent), West Covina (53 percent), Moreno Valley (54 percent), Palmdale (54 percent), Chula Vista (58 percent), San Bernardino (60 percent), Fontana (67 percent), Ontario (69 percent), El Monte (69 percent), Norwalk (70 percent), Pomona (71 percent), Downey (70.7 percent), Oxnard (73.5 percent), Salinas (75 percent) and Santa Ana (78.2 percent).

The place with the largest proportion of Hispanics or Latinos? East Los Angeles, population 126,496, where 97.1 percent of residents in 2010 were Hispanic or Latino. Outside Puerto Rico, East LA had the largest proportion of Hispanics or Latinos of any place in the U.S. of more than 100,000 people.

Source: Californiawatch.org, “Latino population growing slower than in other states,” by Joanna Lin, May 26, 2011.

Posted on Wednesday, June 1, 2011 at 12:54 PM
  • Posted By: Myriam Grajales-Hall
  • Written by: Joanne Lin, Californiawatch.org

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