Mexicans are settling
in upstate New York in record numbers but remain on the
fringe of community life
By Susan S. Lang
Mexican farmworkers and
their families are settling in rural upstate New York
communities in record numbers, often offsetting recent
decades of population loss and making upstate much more
diverse. However, two-thirds of the newcomers can't speak or
understand English, and most are marginalized in their
communities, finds a new Cornell University study.
Pilar Parra |
|
Immigrants often find it difficult to find
transportation because cars are expensive and
drivers' licenses cannot be obtained without
immigration documents. Taxi services have been
organized by immigrants in some of the more urban
communities. |
Seasonal farmworkers in
New York used to be primarily African-Americans, but 95
percent of the farm workers now are Latino, primarily
Mexican, and they are increasingly settling down with their
families in the farm communities rather than returning to
their home countries. New arrivals who left agricultural
employment and settled in New York have only nine years of
education on average, compared with 13 years for other
community members; 28 percent are unemployed, compared with
6 percent of other community members; and their average
household income is less than half (about $20,000) that of
other community members (about $46,000), the study found.
Although the foreign-born
population doubled in rural upstate New York between 1990
and 2000, residents of the host communities barely notice
the recent settlers, most of whom are undocumented
immigrants from Mexico.
"It's striking how
invisible these immigrants are in their communities," said
Max Pfeffer, professor of development sociology at Cornell.
"They're not even noticed. Yet if the communities don't do
more to help the immigrants become an asset, the newcomers
are bound to become an underclass, a burden to the
communities and a breeding ground for crime and
unemployment."
Pfeffer and his colleague
Pilar Parra, a sociologist and research associate in
nutritional sciences and a lecturer in Cornell's Latino
Studies Program, have recently completed a study of more
than 1,300 farmworkers and former farmworkers and 1,250
non-farm community residents in five upstate communities
heavily involved in fruit and vegetable production and with
significant populations of Mexican immigrants. A four-part
series of publications stemming from the study discusses the
nature and consequences of increasing numbers of immigrants
settling in New York communities and is available on the Web
at
http://www.rnyi.cornell.edu/poverty_and_social_inequality/.
The analyses are part of a larger effort to identify major
population trends and their consequences for rural America.
Pilar Parra |
|
Soccer
tournaments are an important social activity for
immigrants in rural communities. |
"Most immigrants in
upstate New York lack ongoing interactions with other
community residents, which is one of the primary reasons why
many farmworkers who came to these communities in the 1970s
and 1980s are still marginal to the communities'
mainstream," said Pfeffer. As a result, few community
members are aware of the immigrants' needs or capabilities
and are unsure how they feel about the influx.
"They're ambivalent,"
Pfeffer said. "Most community residents do not know whether
the Mexican immigrants settling in their area are an asset
or a burden. This ambivalence in part reflects a lack of
connection to the immigrants."
The immigrants who do have
social ties to community members tend to fare significantly
better than immigrants who do not, the study found.
The authors stressed the
need for more English language training, technical education
and greater efforts to include the immigrants in civic
engagement to improve the lives of farmworkers and former
farmworkers and make the immigrants an asset to their
communities.
The project was funded by
a Fund for Rural America, U.S. Department of Agriculture
grant and the Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station.