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By Phil Williams
pwilliam@franklin.uga.edu
The population of Latinos in Georgia more than doubled in the 1990s, as families and individuals came here, principally from Mexico, to share in the economic boom. But along with relative prosperity has come a raft of problems, the worst of which are overcrowded and often shockingly substandard housing, along with a serious lack of public transportation.
Those are just two findings of a study by two professors at UGA. It is the first-ever statewide study of the problems of Latinos in the state.
“We wanted to focus on the needs of the population,” says Stephanie Bohon of the department of sociology, “so we began by talking to key people in six counties--people who interact with Latinos on a daily basis. We focused on issues like health, transportation, housing, labor and education.”
Georgia has the fourth fastest-growing Latino population in the United States. Within the next 25 years, Latinos will pass African Americans as the largest minority in the country.
Bohon and her colleague Jorge Atiles, from the department of housing and consumer economics in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, found that Latinos are usually considered fine neighbors who pay their bills on time and do their best to keep their homes neat. But problems of infrastructure are so deep that, without major help soon, the growing population faces a daunting future.
“The state hasn’t ignored the problem, but there’s a need for so much more information,” says Atiles, who is also an Extension housing specialist.
The study by Bohon and Atiles is a two-part pilot project. The first segment included conversations with those who provide services for or work with the state’s Latinos. This fall, as the second part of the project, the team is talking with Latino immigrants. When that segment is complete, the project will give the best picture yet of the problems facing Latinos in Georgia. The completed study may offer a guide to state legislators and others who are in a position to help solve the problems of the more than 500,000 Latinos who now call Georgia home.
Study sites are in Whitfield, DeKalb, Hall, Colquitt, Liberty and Muscogee counties, areas where earlier studies found the highest concentrations of Latinos in the state. These areas also are geographically diverse and represent a range of conditions, from rural agricultural to urban industrial.
Such a study has never before been undertaken because the rapid rise in the state’s Latino population has been too recent. The Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta brought a huge influx of workers from Central and South America, but the textile industry in the Dalton area and the poultry business in Hall County have attracted hundreds of Latino workers as well.
One difficulty in such a study is the mobility of the Latino population. Workers and their families often move several times in a year, to different agricultural sites or to avoid potential problems with immigration authorities.
While Latinos are recognized as part of communities such as Dalton--where 40,000 Latinos now live--they are less visible elsewhere.
“The census records say there are as many as 18,000 Latinos in Muscogee County, but when we went there, many residents found that hard to believe,” says Bohon. “They are there--but they are not as concentrated as they are in other areas. That makes understanding their problems hard, too.”
What Bohon and Atiles have found so far is that housing and transportation are by far the largest issues facing the new immigrants to the state.
“We saw a great deal of the housing, and I can’t begin to tell you how bad much of it is,” says Atiles. Some small houses hold as many as six families, and the researchers found that structural and sanitary problems were common.
While substandard housing is a pervasive problem, many of the Latinos who live in such houses are afraid to speak out because of problems with their immigration status or because they don’t understand their rights as tenants and fear eviction. There have, however, been major efforts, especially in the Dalton and Gainesville areas, to solve housing problems and to respond to the needs of the immigrants. Programs in those areas have made significant differences in the difficulties the Latinos face, says Atiles.
Transportation also remains an intractable problem. Few Latino workers and families can afford cars and, except in major metropolitan areas, public transportation is scanty or non-existent. Other problems identified in the study include the language barrier and difficulties with access to health care and education. As recent immigrants, Georgia’s Latinos are often the target of scams and unscrupulous overcharging; because many do not use banks, robberies also are common.
“It’s ironic, because most of the people we talked to consider the Latinos to have high ethical standards and to be hard and reliable workers,” says Bohon.
School drop-out rates also plague Latino families, and children of undocumented workers have an especially hard time, as they move often. Some 33 percent of the schoolchildren in Hall County are of Latino descent.
Perceptions of Latino crime are also exaggerated, Bohon says. “We heard that there were gangs everywhere among the Latinos, but when we began to try and track this down, we found out that, in reality, there are very few.” |
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