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Chattanooga: A more diverse country, city by mid-century
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| Barbara Medley | |
In line with the rest of the country, Chattanooga is becoming increasingly more diverse, and with that comes the richness of different cultures and backgrounds, some local residents say.
“To me personally, it’s the representation of the evolving world that we live in. The country lines are really going away, and people are feeling at home really anywhere they live,” said Sheila Boyington, who was born in the United States to Indian parents who emigrated in the 1950s.
“I think (diversity) adds a richness that cannot be experienced without having that culture,” she said.
Minorities in the United States, now one-third of the population, will become the majority by 2042 and rise to 54 percent of the population by 2050, according to the latest projections of the U.S. Census.
“A large portion of the increase is coming from natural increase, that’s births minus deaths,” said Grayson Vincent, a demographer with the U.S. Census. “While net international migration is a contributing factor, it’s sort of the population that’s already here that’s contributing to the increase.”
The non-Hispanic, single-race white population is projected to lose population in the 2030s and 2040s and comprise 46 percent of the total population in 2050, down from 66 percent in 2008, census figures say.
The Hispanic population is projected to nearly triple from 46.7 million to 132.8 million, or 30 percent of the total population, by 2050, according to the census.
The Asian population and, to a lesser extent, the black population also are projected to increase.
Chattanooga is following national trends, experts say.
“Clearly, the national trends we are seeing are certainly going to be reflected locally to some extent, obviously not totally because how a particular area’s population grows and what degree of diversity is related to a number of factors, and one of the most important is employment,” said Dr. Barbara Medley, associate professor and director of the department of sociology, anthropology and geography at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
“People tend to migrate to areas where there are jobs and particular opportunities, and so in this area, the North Georgia and Chattanooga area, we’ve seen considerable growth in the last seven years in the Hispanic population primarily because (of jobs),” she said.
New residents from the Middle East, Latin America and China have seen employment opportunities in the services and health care industries, as well as chances for a better education, according to Dr. Medley.
The Chattanooga area has about 600 Indian families, Mrs. Boyington said, up from about 50 when she moved to Chattanooga 20 years ago.
Local Chinese organizations estimate there are about 200 Chinese families living in the area, and La Paz de Dios, a Hispanic outreach organization, has estimated there are about 15,000 Hispanics living in Hamilton County.
According to the Hamilton County Schools Report Card, white children made up 61 percent of students in 2007, while 39 percent were black, Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic and Native American/Alaskan.
In the United States, 44 percent of children nationwide are minorities, the census reported, a number that is expected to increase to 62 percent by 2050.
Some immigration reduction organizations argue the majority of the growth is due to poor immigration policies.
“This projected growth by 2050 is the equivalent of cramming the entire current population of both Mexico and Canada into communities across America,” said Roy Beck, president of Numbers USA, a nonprofit immigration reduction organization, in a written statement.
“Almost no American would advocate such a thing, but the new projections show that is precisely what federal officials are doing with their immigration policies,” he said.
Solomon Hatch, community outreach coordinator of the city’s Office of Multicultural Affairs, said change shouldn’t mean fear.
“A lot of times when people think of change it’s a fear, but change can mean change for the better,” he said. “Diversity enhances arts, culture, education, everything, (and) it’s forcing us as a country to look at some issues (such as immigration) and do some things,” he said.
“I don’t think this news should be viewed as fearful, as someone is taking over the United States,” said Mrs. Boyington. “When I think about it, I’m as much American as anybody else. I was born and raised in this country.”
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Comments
The growth in the Hispanic population will largely come from babies born to unwed illegal teenage girls.(anchor babies).
http://www.city-journal.org/html/16_4_hi...
(or just google "Hispanic births" for facts.)
"Nearly half of the children born to Hispanic mothers in the U.S. are born out of wedlock, a proportion that has been increasing rapidly with no signs of slowing down. Given what psychologists and sociologists now know about the much higher likelihood of social pathology among those who grow up in single-mother households, the Hispanic baby boom is certain to produce more juvenile delinquents, more school failure, more welfare use, and more teen pregnancy in the future."
If illegal immigration isn't stopped NOW, and the U.S. population majority becomes Hispanic, by the 2040's-50's, we will lose our culture, our language and our soverignty. The drugs, the crime and the loss of jobs for American citizens will turn this country into the same lawless third world cess pool the illegals left. Do we need more rapes of our children? More murders of our law enforcement officers? More vehicular homicides than we already have?
Call me racist if you must, ( I really don't care), but that only proves you have no legitimate arguement! This is not about race, Hispanic is NOT a race anyway, it is about becoming an extension of Mexico!
Stop Illegal Immigration - Make your voice heard! Fax Congress for Free from your desktop.
www.numbersusa.com -fax congress free!
www.alipac.us
www.fairus.org
www.capwiz.com/caps/home/ -fax congress free!
1 of 1 people found this comment useful.
We are indeed becoming more Balkanized with each passing year...as if this were a good thing.
It spells the destruction of the United States as a viable, vigorous and innovative country.
It spells the separating of our great melting pot of a people into its individual ethnic groups and eliminating our former 2+2=5 vitality created by blending all nationalities and cultures into a greater one formerly known as America.
We can't even protect ourselves anymore; look for the still-aggressive nuclear-armed Russia to takeover the world position we once held...and we can't do a thing about it. They will have won the Cold War after all...and by default. They HAVE buried us.
All in the name of diversity or Balkanization [see Wikipedia.com]...and a pie-in-the-sky North American Union.
Save your Confederate Money, boys; maybe the South WILL rise again...or maybe a new Caliphate.
Regardless of what the Office of Multicultural Affairs here may say and the kool-aid they drink, diversity enhances nothing but the trivialization of all Americans.
Furthermore, unspecified change without vetting, merely for the sake of change, is not brave but is something to examine with a jaundiced eye -- it is throwing out the baby with the bath water. All for a few platitudes and self-satisfied smugness.
0 of 0 people found this comment useful.
By her own words, even Ms Boyington -- a native-born American of foreign-born parents -- neither knows nor appreciates what an American really is and how they came to be that way. She espouses the elimination of all things historically American in favor of her sacred diversity.
Some would perhaps prefer a Hindu caste system, the [mis]treatment of Muslim women, or a feudal lord/serf setup here instead of "...all men are created equal." That is the way it was in "the old country", right? So it is good enough for here?
As a second generation native-born proud American, I do know America and what we are [or were, pre-diversity].
Another Greatest Generation to defend the world will not come from this country. Pity, that.
0 of 0 people found this comment useful.
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