 |
| Charlotte, North Carolina skyline en.wikipedia.org |
Once again, current dictate the day's post. The tragic events in San Bernardino and the revelation that one of the Paris shooters had a Syrian passport, has put immigration in the white hot spotlight of American presidential politics. The subject has always been in the forefront but never so accutely as now and it seems, that no one has any coherent or cohesive plan to tackle immigration in way that ensures the safety of natural-born and naturalized Americans while providing refuge for those fleeing persecution and economic hardship in their country. Tanvi Misra, in her story "The Struggles of a Pro-Immigrant City in an Anti-Immigrant State" for CityLab, looks at how Charlotte, North Carolina's Latino population still remain unwelcome in a city they helped built during economically flush times. The story is a microcosm for America's thorny history of immigration since the pre-Colonial times. The struggles of Latinos in Charlotte could apply to any immigrant group anywhere. What makes Charlotte different is a city government willing to engage its population and take prudent measures. It is a lesson well worth paying attention.
Charlotte, North Carolina is America's second largest banking center and is making steady recovery following the recession. Ms. Misra writes, "Between 2010 nd 2013, the population growth here was second only to Austin, and in the next decade or so Charlotte might become the fastest-growing U.S. city, according to U.N. projections." The ongoing development in betweent the downtown skyscrapers attest to boom times. Charlottles's recovery since the eighties has been accompanied and supported, "by the mind-boggling growth of its Latino population." Ms. Misra cites, "that figure was 13.1 percent by 2014." Over the past three decades, the Latino workforce has helped build and adminster the city. The Latino business community has fueled its economy and Latino children have populated the public schools.
This did not go unnoticed by civic officials, who made efforts to be more welcoming over the past few years. While the majority of Charlotte residents believe their city is hospitable, its Latino residents believe otherwise. One of the biggest stumbling blocks to the city's effort to make itself more immigrant friendly is North Carolina's state legislature, both houses controlled by the Republican party since 2010. Charlotte city officials and urban academics are quite fond of saying Charlotte is a lue spot in a deep red state, The fact that Republicans control both houses of the state legislature makes it more difficult for the city to implement policies that could aid Latinos how call Charlotte home.
How Latinos built Charlotte
The chart on the left quantifies the increases in Latino population over a twenty year period. Ms. Misra reports, "Between 1980 and 2000, Charlotte's Hispanic population grew a staggering 932 percent-more than twice the national rate." Charlotte is one of eighteen metropolitan regions regions in the U.S. that experienced Latino hypergrowth, defined as "an increase of more than 300 percent in that time period." Of the areas that experienced this hypergrowth, three out of the top four were in North Carolina. Some came to the state as seasonal migrant workers during the eighties-picking tobacco and working on Christmas tree farms. When those jobs ended, most stayed on, working in large hog and turkey processing plants located in smaller towns, which were experiencing losses in population at the time. According to Owen Furuseth, professor of geography at the University of North Carolina-Charlott, The Latino families who settled in these places are still keeping them afloat. Professor Furuseth told a group of journalists taking part in a reporting trip organized by the Aspen Institute Latino and Society,
Quite frankly, but for the Latino residents, these places would dry up and blow away...The Latinos have become entrepreneurs. They are the labor force.
More recently, instead of arriving as migrant laborers, Latinos have been coming to metropolitan areas like Charlotte to work in the construction, financial, and business sectors. The authors of a joint 2002 Brookings Institute and Pew Research Center study on "hypergrowth metros" observed this trend:
Eleven of these metro lie in the Southeast, with three North Carolina cities-Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh-epitomizing the "new economy" of the 1990s with rapid development in the finance, business services, and high-tech sectors.
Bank of America phenomenon in Charlotte. When the financial institution moved its headquarters to the city, it hired a Houston-based construction company to put up their coporate building. The company realized that Charlotte did not have a large blue-collar workforce (carpenters, electricians, plumbers, et cetera) and recruited along the southern United States border. Word quickly spread among Latino workers, with and without papers, looking for employment. Prof. Furuseth said,
Prof. Furuseth refers to these set of circumstances as the
They knew there were jopbs-they called their brother, their cousin, they called their family members back in Mexico or Texas...When this building was finished, there were five or six more buildings under construction, so a pipelin was created.
The workers began to put down roots in Charlotte because it offered them a better quality of life then the traditonal North of the Border hubs like New York and Los Angeles. The Brookings report refers to Charlotte as a major immigrant gateway. Instead of being forced into high-poverty inner city neighborhoods, Latino immigrants moved into mixed-income, middle ring suburbs, where affordable housing was available. As the financial sector flourished, higher paying jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities became available, including for females members of the families. The big cherry on top, according to Prof. Furuseth: immigration was a "non-issue," politically.
" Blue spot in a deep red state"
Recently, newly elected Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts, Ron Carlee, the city manager, and Stefan Latorre chair of the Immigration Task Force welcomed a group of journalists to the city. In Spanish, Mayor Roberts told the group,
When I first ran for office in 2004 [for Meckleenburg County Commissioner], people told to hide the fact that I speak Spanish. Switching to English she continued, In just 11 years, now I can celebrate that.
Ron Carlee told the group:
While there are a lot of social and economic justic cases to be made with regard to embracing a multicultural society, there's a really strong business case to be made.
The Immigration Task Force (established in 2013) gathered information from community leaders, scholars, and activists for a report released in March 2015. The report was composed of recommendations on making Charlotte more hospitable to immigrants. Some of the suggestions were: "...encouraging immigrant-owne businesses; ensuring immigrants have access to fair, safe housing, and better infrastructure in their neighborhoods; building trust between immigrant communities and law enforcement; and spreading awareness about naturalization and citizenship." Another reccommendation called for a community identity card for all residents, regardless of citizenhship status. However, while Charlotte is attempting to take more immigrant friendly steps, the conservative North Carolina statehouse has been moving in the opposite direction.
The identity card is one of the most polemic issues. In North Carolina, like many other states, undocumented immigrants are not eligible for driver's licenses. Immigrants who arrive illegally to the U.S. and qualify for the federal government's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival extension can reside and work in America; can apply for a driver's license. In 2013, North Carolina became the only state to issue special licenses, stamped with the words "No lawful enty." Immigration activits and civil rights groups argued that these specially marked licenses violate the privacy of immigrants and can lead to discrimination when they apply for jobs, loans, or encounter law enforcement. To complicate the situation, the state House of Representatives passed a bill that proposed jail time for anyone caught driving without a license. Supporters of the bill hoped it would get the undocumented immigrants off the road.
Further, in 2013, the state passed the "Rclaim NC Act" (H.B. 786), which would have permitted drivers, regardless of citizenship status to obain licenses. However, the NC state government used the information gathered from theapplications to enforce immigration laws more harshly on undocumented immigrants. The bill was eventually vetoed byut activitists compared it to Arizona's notoroius "show me your papers"law.
Sarah Preston, the policy director of the North Carolina chapter of the American Civil Liberty Union said in a press release,
The proposal give police the power to harass people based solely on suspicion of immigration status, opening the door to stops based on stereotypes and racial bias rather than facts and evidence.
Tank Misra reports, "This June the Charlotte city council passed a civil rights resolution that asked police not to profile immigrants and enforce immigration laws during instances such as routine stops." A sensible request, however, the state legislature responded with S.B. 318, signed into law by Governor Pat McCrory in October. This law makes it illegal for cities to pass sanctuary city-type laws, thus nullifying Charlotte's civil rights resolution. S.B. 318 also says that municipal identity card, like the one Charlotte proposed for undocumented immigrants, will not be recognized by law enforcement and government agencies. Ron Carlee said, You get retaliation when you try to do the right thing.
State laws such as H.B 786 and S.B. 318 push immigrants, documented and other, further into the shadows. They are too afraid to drive to work because of the risk of deportation. Ms. Misra note, "Deportations in North Carolina have been increasing every year. The irony is if they do not have a way to get to work, they lose their jobs and the means to support their families.
An urban population at risk
There is no doubt that the North Carolina state house is throwing road blocks in the path of advancement in Charlotte's Latino neighborhoods. This is also true of any efforts at personal advancement. As the city grows, Latino, African-Americans, and other low-income demographic groups run the risk of displacement. The map on the left shows how the diverse Latino population is spread out over the Charlotte-Mecklenburg county area. Although most are business owners and entrepreneurs, the majority are working poor centered in high-poverty areas in North Carolina.
At the risk of stating the obvious, there real problems that come with living in high-poverty areas. Tanvi Misra writes, "Harvard economist Raj Chetty's recent social mobility research pegs Mecklenburg County as the second worst in which to grow up poor." Charlotte's school are re-segregating themselves. However, the main mechanisms available to cities to increase economic and residential mobility: raising the minimum wage or instituting inclusionary zoning policies, are forbidden und state law.
In the interim, Charlotte is trying to improve the Latino low-income neighborhoods. The city has tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to lure developers to build affordable housing using incentives. City Manager Ron Carlee also told Ms. Misra that they are trying to make the city more walkable. Civic officials are putting in bike lanes and making improvements to bus, light rail, and street car connectivity so immigrants can move about without the burden of car ownership and benefit from transit-related neighborhood development.
"I am cautiously optimistic about the future"
Tanvi Misra tell us the story of Oliver Merino. Oliver came to the United States in 1999, at the age of ten. His mother traveled with t him and his older brother (13 at the time) from Mexico across the desert into Arizona. Oliver's father was already in the United States, working in a poultry processing factory in Monroe, North Carolina. The Merinos arrived illegally because they were laid off from a Mexican textile factory when their jobs were outsourced aboard. They would have tried to apply for legal residency but they had neither the time or money.
Oliver and brother grew up and attended school in Monroe, He was one of the few lucky undocumented children to receive a college scholarship. He now works for the Museum of the New South in Charlotte and considers himself a Southerner. Mr. Merino told Ms. Misra,
It's a city where you can feel you're building something-it's a city of newcomers...Wherever I go, wherever I travel, this is the place that I think of when I think of home. This is the place where I feel I can contribute.
Tanvi Misra reports, "Merino is a recipient of the DACA extension, which means he's exempt from deportation and can temporarily live and work in the country." He also campaigns for young immigrants's rights and fights anti-immigrant policies in Charlotte. He believes that Charlotte is at a crossroads. The new mayor has a history of interacting with the Latino residents and Mr. Merino believes that she should be able accomplish more than fall back on the statehouse as excuse to stay silent. Oliver Merino also feels confident that the anti-immigrant arguments have awakened the people. He also hopes that it will increase Latino voter turnout. Mr. Merino said I'm cautiously optimistic about the future about Charlotte... To me, this is where the battleground is.
 |
| Downtown Charlotte Flickr/James Willamor city lab.com |
This did not go unnoticed by civic officials, who made efforts to be more welcoming over the past few years. While the majority of Charlotte residents believe their city is hospitable, its Latino residents believe otherwise. One of the biggest stumbling blocks to the city's effort to make itself more immigrant friendly is North Carolina's state legislature, both houses controlled by the Republican party since 2010. Charlotte city officials and urban academics are quite fond of saying Charlotte is a lue spot in a deep red state, The fact that Republicans control both houses of the state legislature makes it more difficult for the city to implement policies that could aid Latinos how call Charlotte home.
 |
| "Top 5 'Hypergrowth' New Latino Destinations, 2000 city lab.com |
The chart on the left quantifies the increases in Latino population over a twenty year period. Ms. Misra reports, "Between 1980 and 2000, Charlotte's Hispanic population grew a staggering 932 percent-more than twice the national rate." Charlotte is one of eighteen metropolitan regions regions in the U.S. that experienced Latino hypergrowth, defined as "an increase of more than 300 percent in that time period." Of the areas that experienced this hypergrowth, three out of the top four were in North Carolina. Some came to the state as seasonal migrant workers during the eighties-picking tobacco and working on Christmas tree farms. When those jobs ended, most stayed on, working in large hog and turkey processing plants located in smaller towns, which were experiencing losses in population at the time. According to Owen Furuseth, professor of geography at the University of North Carolina-Charlott, The Latino families who settled in these places are still keeping them afloat. Professor Furuseth told a group of journalists taking part in a reporting trip organized by the Aspen Institute Latino and Society,
Quite frankly, but for the Latino residents, these places would dry up and blow away...The Latinos have become entrepreneurs. They are the labor force.
More recently, instead of arriving as migrant laborers, Latinos have been coming to metropolitan areas like Charlotte to work in the construction, financial, and business sectors. The authors of a joint 2002 Brookings Institute and Pew Research Center study on "hypergrowth metros" observed this trend:
Eleven of these metro lie in the Southeast, with three North Carolina cities-Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh-epitomizing the "new economy" of the 1990s with rapid development in the finance, business services, and high-tech sectors.
Bank of America phenomenon in Charlotte. When the financial institution moved its headquarters to the city, it hired a Houston-based construction company to put up their coporate building. The company realized that Charlotte did not have a large blue-collar workforce (carpenters, electricians, plumbers, et cetera) and recruited along the southern United States border. Word quickly spread among Latino workers, with and without papers, looking for employment. Prof. Furuseth said,
 |
| Latino mother and daughters in North Carolina ui.uncc.edu |
They knew there were jopbs-they called their brother, their cousin, they called their family members back in Mexico or Texas...When this building was finished, there were five or six more buildings under construction, so a pipelin was created.
The workers began to put down roots in Charlotte because it offered them a better quality of life then the traditonal North of the Border hubs like New York and Los Angeles. The Brookings report refers to Charlotte as a major immigrant gateway. Instead of being forced into high-poverty inner city neighborhoods, Latino immigrants moved into mixed-income, middle ring suburbs, where affordable housing was available. As the financial sector flourished, higher paying jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities became available, including for females members of the families. The big cherry on top, according to Prof. Furuseth: immigration was a "non-issue," politically.
 |
| "North Carolina cities and towns percent Hispanic/Latino, 2010" city lab.com |
" Blue spot in a deep red state"
Recently, newly elected Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts, Ron Carlee, the city manager, and Stefan Latorre chair of the Immigration Task Force welcomed a group of journalists to the city. In Spanish, Mayor Roberts told the group,
When I first ran for office in 2004 [for Meckleenburg County Commissioner], people told to hide the fact that I speak Spanish. Switching to English she continued, In just 11 years, now I can celebrate that.
Ron Carlee told the group:
While there are a lot of social and economic justic cases to be made with regard to embracing a multicultural society, there's a really strong business case to be made.
 |
| North Carolina Latino voters npr.org |
 |
| Voter registration in North Carolina wnpr.org |
Further, in 2013, the state passed the "Rclaim NC Act" (H.B. 786), which would have permitted drivers, regardless of citizenship status to obain licenses. However, the NC state government used the information gathered from theapplications to enforce immigration laws more harshly on undocumented immigrants. The bill was eventually vetoed byut activitists compared it to Arizona's notoroius "show me your papers"law.
 |
| ACLU infographic for HB 786 wncmigration.blogspot.com |
The proposal give police the power to harass people based solely on suspicion of immigration status, opening the door to stops based on stereotypes and racial bias rather than facts and evidence.
Tank Misra reports, "This June the Charlotte city council passed a civil rights resolution that asked police not to profile immigrants and enforce immigration laws during instances such as routine stops." A sensible request, however, the state legislature responded with S.B. 318, signed into law by Governor Pat McCrory in October. This law makes it illegal for cities to pass sanctuary city-type laws, thus nullifying Charlotte's civil rights resolution. S.B. 318 also says that municipal identity card, like the one Charlotte proposed for undocumented immigrants, will not be recognized by law enforcement and government agencies. Ron Carlee said, You get retaliation when you try to do the right thing.
State laws such as H.B 786 and S.B. 318 push immigrants, documented and other, further into the shadows. They are too afraid to drive to work because of the risk of deportation. Ms. Misra note, "Deportations in North Carolina have been increasing every year. The irony is if they do not have a way to get to work, they lose their jobs and the means to support their families.
 |
| "Charlotte Latino Settlement Clusters" Courtesy of Owen Furuseth, UNC Charlotte city lab.com |
There is no doubt that the North Carolina state house is throwing road blocks in the path of advancement in Charlotte's Latino neighborhoods. This is also true of any efforts at personal advancement. As the city grows, Latino, African-Americans, and other low-income demographic groups run the risk of displacement. The map on the left shows how the diverse Latino population is spread out over the Charlotte-Mecklenburg county area. Although most are business owners and entrepreneurs, the majority are working poor centered in high-poverty areas in North Carolina.
At the risk of stating the obvious, there real problems that come with living in high-poverty areas. Tanvi Misra writes, "Harvard economist Raj Chetty's recent social mobility research pegs Mecklenburg County as the second worst in which to grow up poor." Charlotte's school are re-segregating themselves. However, the main mechanisms available to cities to increase economic and residential mobility: raising the minimum wage or instituting inclusionary zoning policies, are forbidden und state law.
 |
| "Latinos And The Making Of The New South" new south.uncc.edu |
"I am cautiously optimistic about the future"
Tanvi Misra tell us the story of Oliver Merino. Oliver came to the United States in 1999, at the age of ten. His mother traveled with t him and his older brother (13 at the time) from Mexico across the desert into Arizona. Oliver's father was already in the United States, working in a poultry processing factory in Monroe, North Carolina. The Merinos arrived illegally because they were laid off from a Mexican textile factory when their jobs were outsourced aboard. They would have tried to apply for legal residency but they had neither the time or money.
 |
| Graduation day Photograph courtesy of Oliver Merino city lab.com |
It's a city where you can feel you're building something-it's a city of newcomers...Wherever I go, wherever I travel, this is the place that I think of when I think of home. This is the place where I feel I can contribute.
Tanvi Misra reports, "Merino is a recipient of the DACA extension, which means he's exempt from deportation and can temporarily live and work in the country." He also campaigns for young immigrants's rights and fights anti-immigrant policies in Charlotte. He believes that Charlotte is at a crossroads. The new mayor has a history of interacting with the Latino residents and Mr. Merino believes that she should be able accomplish more than fall back on the statehouse as excuse to stay silent. Oliver Merino also feels confident that the anti-immigrant arguments have awakened the people. He also hopes that it will increase Latino voter turnout. Mr. Merino said I'm cautiously optimistic about the future about Charlotte... To me, this is where the battleground is.
No comments:
Post a Comment