Ethnic Groups In California

This document examines differences in socioeconomic status by racial and ethnic groups in California, exploring changing patterns over time. It analyzes trends and outcomes in demography, geographic distribution, health, education, crime, labor markets, economic status, and political participation. Data on educational outcomes include: education of mothers; English language ability; preschool activities of children ages 3 and 4; reading and math proficiency for grade 4 and 8 public school students; high school completion rates; college completion rates; and measures of basic skills in the adult population. The educational outcomes of Hispanics and African Americans are the lowest among all racial and ethnic groups. Most recent population growth has occurred among Hispanics and Asians. Most counties were predominantly White in 1970, but between 1970-98, the share of Whites declined in all but one county. African Americans have the worst health status of any group. Hispanics often have less access to health care and lower health status than Whites. Health indicators for Asians are similar to those for Whites. Nonwhites generally have lower earnings than whites. Hispanics and African Americans have particularly high unemployment rates. Asian and White family incomes are substantially higher than those for African Americans and Hispanics. The ethnic distribution of those arrested and incarcerated has shifted dramatically. The proportion of Hispanics incarcerated has risen at a faster rate than has the Hispanic proportion of the general population. African Americans experience the highest risk of arrest and incarceration and are most likely to experience violence. Whites are over-represented in the voting population. Asians and Hispanics have the lowest participation rates. An appendix presents additional sources of information. (Contains 103 bibliographic references.) (SM)

Minorities are increasing in California, raising policy questions for the state's libraries. This report provides background information and frames key issues for those attending a conference convened by the California State Library in May 1988. It describes public libraries in California and the ethnic and racial composition of the state's population as of 1988. It projects the future ethnic and racial composition of the state and analyzes the implications for libraries and the systematic obstacles libraries face when responding to diversity. Finally, it suggests ways libraries can address the identified obstacles and poses questions that should help libraries clarify the issues.

Since 1965 more immigrants have come to Los Angeles than anywhere else in the United States. These newcomers have rapidly and profoundly transformed the city's ethnic makeup and sparked heated debate over their impact on the region's troubled economy. Ethnic Los Angeles presents a multi-investigator study of L.A.'s immigrant population, exploring the scope, characteristics, and consequences of ethnic transition in the nation's second most populous urban center. Using the wealth of information contained in the U.S. censuses of 1970, 1980, and 1990, essays on each of L.A.'s major ethnic groups tell who the immigrants are, where they come from, the skills they bring and their sources of employment, and the nature of their families and social networks. The contributors explain the history of legislation and economic change that made the city a magnet for immigration, and compare the progress of new immigrants to those of previous eras. Recent immigrants to Los Angeles follow no uniform course of adaptation, nor do they simply assimilate into the mainstream society. Instead, they have entered into distinct niches at both the high and low ends of the economic spectrum. While Asians and Middle Easterners have thrived within the medical and technical professions, low-skill newcomers from Central America provide cheap labor in light manufacturing industries. As Ethnic Los Angeles makes clear, the city's future will depend both on how well its economy accommodates its diverse population, and on how that population adapts to economic changes. The more prosperous immigrants arrived already possessed of advanced educations and skills, but what does the future hold for less-skilled newcomers? Will their children be able to advance socially and economically, as the children of previous immigrants once did? The contributors examine the effect of racial discrimination, both in favoring low-skilled immigrant job seekers over African Americans, and in preventing the more successful immigrants and native-born ethnic groups from achieving full economic parity with whites. Ethnic Los Angeles is an illuminating portrait of a city whose unprecedented changes are sure to be replicated in other urban areas as new concentrations of immigrants develop. Backed by detailed demographic information and insightful analyses, this volume engages all of the issues that are central to today's debates about immigration, ethnicity, and economic opportunity in a post-industrial urban society.