State Anti-Immigration Laws Discourage All Latinos from Moving In

*There’s a line in this story that’s central to the problem and the immigration debate in general. It’s in the fourth paragraph, it says “This is a loss of human capital,” it’s attributed to Richard Wright, a co-author of the study. What Wright is trying to say is that immigration is also an economic issue, what he’s trying to do is change the immigration narrative. It’s a good line to remember. VL

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By Brian Latimer, NBC News (1.5 minute read)

States that passed anti-immigration legislation are losing out on Latinos who are not migrating to these areas — and this includes Hispanics born in the U.S.

The University of Washington – Dartmouth study tracked interstate migration of U.S.-born Latinos, naturalized Latinos and non-citizen Latinos since 1995. Researchers tracked how Hispanics moved within the U.S. as states passed anti-immigration legislation during and after the Great Recession.

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These “hostile states” have laws that require immigration-status verification to acquire a driver’s license, call for universal employment verification, or plan to cut funding to “Sanctuary Cities.” In Arizona specifically, the controversial bill SB 1070, also known as the “Show Me Your Papers” bill, required citizens to present proof of their immigration status on demand . . . READ MORE

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[Image courtesy of NBC News]

Suggested reading

“On good days I feel I am a bridge. On bad days I just feel alone,” Sergio Troncoso writes in this riveting collection of sixteen personal essays in which he seeks to connect the humanity of his Mexican family to people he meets on the East Coast, including his wife’s Jewish kin. Raised in a home steps from the Mexican border in El Paso, Texas, Troncoso crossed what seemed an even more imposing border when he left home to attend Harvard College.

Initially, “outsider status” was thrust upon him; later, he adopted it willingly, writing about the Southwest and Chicanos in an effort to communicate who he was and where he came from to those unfamiliar with his childhood world. He wrote to maintain his ties to his parents and his abuelita, and to fight against the elitism he experienced at an Ivy League school. “I was torn,” he writes, “between the people I loved at home and the ideas I devoured away from home.”

Troncoso writes to preserve his connections to the past, but he puts pen to paper just as much for the future. In his three-part essay entitled “Letter to My Young Sons,” he documents the terror of his wife’s breast cancer diagnosis and the ups and downs of her surgery and treatment. Other essays convey the joys and frustrations of fatherhood, his uneasy relationship with his elderly father and the impact his wife’s Jewish heritage and religion have on his Mexican-American identity.

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