Hispanics abandon "hostile" Arizona, fleeing economy, immigration law

[Bluebear]

Arizona’s hard-hitting immigration law is driving Hispanics out of the state weeks before the controversial law goes into effect.

Although concrete figures are not available, anecdotal evidence suggests Hispanics, both legal residents and illegal immigrants, are starting to flee.

Schools in Hispanic neighborhoods are reporting abnormal enrollment drops, and businesses that serve Hispanics also report that business is down, according to a USA Today report published Wednesday.

The report suggests that the immigration law is compounding demographic trends that have already significantly curtailed illegal immigration during the past two years. The bad economy has been the primary deterrent to many Hispanic immigrants seeking to enter Arizona, says Jeffrey Passel, a demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington.

“If you have a bad economy and a hostile environment, then that’s likely to cause people to think twice about coming, and possibly even to leave,” Mr. Passel says.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/307229

[williesgirl]

1. That's the intent behind this law, so they should be delighted.

[Bluebear]

2. Absolutely. The intent is to bleach the state, whether from "legals" or "illegals"

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. So expect this law to spread.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. A victory for the haters

[pinboy3niner]

10. A pyrrhic victory

The end of the story addresses the cost to Arizona's economy:


For his part, Gutierrez is skeptical of claims that the law will begin an exodus. “I don’t see a historical trend that has been in place for 100 years will be reversed because you’ve got a few hyper-conservative white legislators trying to turn back the clock, turn back the tides of history.”

Any loss, however, will be a loss for the Arizona economy, Gutierrez suggests.

“Latinos...are a highly flexible, highly exploitable work force, a buffer to economic downturns,” he says. “Many of the industries here – agriculture, service industries, low-end manufacturing, construction – are massively dependent on undocumented workers.

“If I were able to conduct an experiment and pay all of Arizona’s undocumented workers to not work for two weeks, the economy would come to a screeching, crashing halt instantaneously.”

[blondeatlast]

13. I'd love to see a slow-down/blue flu strike that could last through Fall.

Just imagine the tourism industry with 33-50% fewer workers.

Screeching halt is right, so many other jobs depend on tourism it would wreck Brewer (and rightfully so)

[blondeatlast]

4. I'm as white as it gets, I love the beauty of the Sonoran, but I'm seriously considering

joining them now that I'm divorced.

Isimply cannot abide the legalized hatred.

[Mudoria]

5. They should hold a referendum on the new law..

[Xipe Totec]

6. With any luck, they leave before filling out a census return

It will be interesting to see if this migration impacts Arizona's congressional representation.

[SargeUNN]

7. Well ...

I have been pointing to this since this law was signed and have talked to people in the know about it. I have said go to youtube search for 9500 Liberty and you can watch a bunch of videos as a law much like 1070 starts, goes into effect, and has to be changed. I had a woman on my show who works with the Dream Act that told a couple or so weeks ago that Hispanics were leaving Arizona just like the 9500 Liberty videos showed happened there. Now seems people are shocked by what has happened everywhere this same type law has been tried and failed.

[hedgehog]

8. A Day Without a Mexican

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0377744/

[rocktivity]

9. The drop in School enrollments might be due

illegal parents are afraid to be to have their backgrounds traced.

:shrug:
rocktivity

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. Schools don't do background checks on parents

[Bluebear]

15. That's "illegal parents".

:eyes:

[proud2BlibKansan]

16. Not even them

:)

[Igel]

14. Or they might not be that abnormal.

Or they just might reflect more movement from place to place within the area. Or something else. Or perhaps the enrollment that's dropped is summer school.

The reason I'm sceptical is that they don't give a time period. School ended at the end of May. If the kids stayed in school until then, I don't understand "enrollment drop" simply because parents wouldn't formally withdraw their kids over the summer. They typically just pack up, move, and enroll their kids elsewhere and clean up the paperwork as needed.

If they took their kids out of school in May--April seems too early for that, after all--then again, I suspect most parents wouldn't formally withdraw. It's a strange time to do it.

It's hard to tell because other than reporting what amounts to unsourced rumors, the story's pretty thin with detail and no attempt to confirm much of anything. The one thing it is dripping is confirmation bias with no attempt to see if there are any other explanations.