Hispanics have much to offer, study says
Friday, June 30th, 2006
By Chris Fitzsimon
It’s in N.C.’s interests to help in assimilation, professor says
By Richard Craver JOURNAL REPORTER
The Hispanic community is establishing roots in the Triad whether it’s welcomed or not, according to speakers at a N.C. Bankers Association seminar yesterday at the downtown Marriott.
The sooner that businesses and consumers recognize that reality, the quicker state resources can be dedicated to assimilating Hispanics culturally and economically, said James Johnson Jr., a co-author of a recent study on the economic impact of Hispanics.
"There’s no county in North Carolina that’s untouched by Hispanic immigration," Johnson said. He is a professor of management in the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
"It’s a migration that is maturing and about as permanent as any migration system could be," he said. "So don’t expect anybody to be going home anytime soon."
"The Economic Impact of the Hispanic Population on the State of North Carolina," released Jan. 3, determined that there were nearly 601,000 Hispanic residents in 2004.
Yesterday’s seminar in Winston-Salem was the first of six statewide discussions on the study.
The researchers found that Hispanics added $9.2 billion to North Carolina’s economy in 2004. But there wasa net cost to the state of $61million, or $102 for each Hispanic resident, for schools, health care and prisons to accommodate the rapidly growing immigrant population.
Johnson said that the study found that Hispanics have much younger heads of households, larger family sizes and more people (55 percent) in the "prime working ages" of 18 to 44 than non-Hispanic households (37 percent). It also found that 55 percent of Hispanics are here legally.
"The reason those numbers matter is that it has implications for who’s going to take care of our butts as we grow older," Johnson said. (more…)
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