Blogger Candidate Forum: More Golden

Hello Everyone:

It is Wednesday and Blogger Candidate Forum returns after a two week break.

Map of immigrant destinations in California
cis.org

It is only Wednesday and the social media stratosphere is still ablaze over Mr. Donald Trump's tweets telling four females of color, duly elected members of the House of Representatives "to go back where they came from" because they had the audacity to criticize him.  This had Blogger thinking about the role immigrants have played and continued to play in her home state of California.

California has long been a destination for migrants from around the world and within the United States.  The allure is powerful, a place at the western edge of a continent that provides a fertile environment for reinvention.  That is the romantic view, the reality is immigrants, many highly educated, are remaking California great.

Immigrants, especially the newly arrived Asian immigrants, are better educated than American born citizens.  Unlike their ancestors, who arrived 150 years ago, to risk life and limb to help build the Transcontinental Railroad, newly arrived Asian immigrants are not starting at the very bottom of the social-economic ladder.

Latinos working in the California fields
latimes.com

 Los Angeles Times columnist George Skelton,  "True, many Latin Americans ares still migrating here to work in the fields and harvest corps--although not nearly enough of them, farmers say--or wash dishes in four-star restaurants" (latimes.com; May 20, 2019; date accessed July 17, 2019).  This statement is also true in agricultural communities in the Midwest.  The newly arrived migrants are better educated than previous generations, thus eschewing washing dishes and picking strawberries.  Hans Johnson, an immigration and demographic expert at the Public Policy Institute of California, told The Times,

It's the old story of immigrants coming to the U.S. and California seeking a better life for themselves and their children,.... What's different now is the trend toward immigrants coming into California with high levels of education.  The share of those who already have completed college is extremely high.  Asian immigrants are the best educated group in California, better than U.S.-born.  Immigrants from India are the single best educated group in our state." (Ibid)

Latin Americans migrants arriving with a higher levels of education means, according to Mr. Johnson,

...means there are fewer lower-skilled immigrants and a smaller pool of farm workers than there used to be. (Ibid)

Asian family
ppic.org

He noted in a paper released in May, Immigrants in California (ppic.org; May 2019; date accessed July 17, 2019), "But California's economy still relies on immigrants with little education..." (latimes.com; May 21, 2019)  Hans Johnson based the figures on immigration numbers through 2017, the most current available.

George Skelton reports, "In 2017, Johnson reports, 32% of working-age California immigrants had not graduated from high school.  They primarily worked in the agriculture and hospitality industries" (Ibid).

Education levels of immigrants and U.S. born adults
migrationpolicy.org

The same year, "52% of working-age immigrants who had lived in the U.S. for five years or less had at least bachelor's degrees--up 30 percentage points since 1990.  In contrast, only 37% of U.S.-born Californians were college graduates--up just 10 points since 1990" (Ibid).

Further, "...55% of newly arrived immigrants were from Asia, roughly double the number from Latin America, 29%.  The majority from Asia had at least a bachelor's degree--and 80% of immigrants from India did" (Ibid).

Surveying California workers with university degrees, approximately 30 percent of degree holders were immigrants (Ibid).  The overwhelming number majority graduates work in electronics and product manufacturing were immigrants (Ibid).  What is drawing immigrants to California?  The technology industry in Silicon Valley and Los Angeles.  Mr Johnson told The Times, Silicon Valley is drawing in immigrants (Ibid).

Map of Silicon Valley
dabrownstein.com

Five counties is the place where a third of the population is made up of immigrants.  The top three in and around Silicon Valley are: Santa Clara, San Francisco, and San Mateo.  The other two are Los Angeles and Alameda counties.

The uptick in the number of college-educated immigrant could not come at a better time.  California needs people to replaces American-born, university educated, retiring baby boomers (Ibid).  The U.S. birthrate has not kept pace with the recent retirees.  Mr. Johnson told the Los Angeles Times,

The number of college grads leaving the labor market is at a record high,.... We've never seen in the history of California, or the U.S., such a large and highly educated cohort of people leaving the labor force,  We need more highly educated workers in California. (Ibid)

 Foreign born worker are arriving to fill the void.  Border walls, family separations, and caravans of migrants from violent Central American countries tirades aside, there is more to immigration than blaring headlines.

In his study, Mr. Johnson concluded "there are almost 11 million immigrants in California, about a quarter of the foreign-born population nationwide.  That's 27% of California's population, more than double the percentage for the rest of the country" (Ibid).

Where in California undocumented immigrants live
ppic.org

Here is an interesting statistic, "14% of immigrants are California illegally.  That's 1.5 million people, down from 2 million in 2010" (Ibid).  Here is another fact, "Half of California immigrants are from Latin America; 40% from Asia.  The main countries of origin are Mexico (4.1 million), China (969,000), the Philippines (857,000), Vietnam (524,000) and India (507,000)" (Ibid).

Since 2010, 56 percent of the immigrants arrived from Asia; and 29 percent from Latin America (Ibid).  Undocumented immigration from Mexico has tapered and little, if any of it, has to do with anything that Mr. Trump has tried to do.  The downturn in undocumented immigration from Mexico began early in President Barack Obama's administration and was probably related to increased deportations.  However, the drop in undocumented immigration was mainly due to a better job market in Mexico.  Researchers say,

Labor opportunities in Mexico have generally been improving,.... Population growth has slowed as birthrates have come way down.  The number of new workers has declined dramatically, which translates into fewer people in the labor force. (Ibid)

This mean less competition for jobs.

Birthrates are falling because more women are in the entering the work force.  This true of other developing countries, including the United States.  California's technology hubs are magnets for for much needed highly educated workers.  That is what is making California even more golden.;