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Pew Hispanic Center - Chronicling Latinos Diverse Experiences in a Changing America

Policy ThinkShop Blogger — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:56:26 +0000

Some of the descendants of today’s native Americans are also the descendants of today’s Mexican Americans. For thousands of years there has been a natural migration from well below the Rio Grande to cold northern parts of what is today’s “Upper Midwest.” The region today that is loosely made up of the Dakotas, Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois. Ironically, even the then pilgrims were considered “illegal aliens” by the then natives. The same natives who “hosted them” and welcomed the pilgrims in what we now call “Thanks Giving.” Certainly the then natives must have thought of the pilgrims as “illegal aliens” but gave them quarter and kindness nevertheless.

But “my oh my” how times have changed and how the Thanksgiving tables have been turned. The immigration debate promises to change how we all define America and maybe even begin to tie together a North American Continent that continues to play a role for new comers. We may yet get the facts straight and muster up some of that native hospitality that made that long cold winter of immigration survivable for the original pilgrims.

We may yet repair the growing divisions in our country and continue to be a beacon of giving, welcoming and building for future generations. Like the Statue of Liberty, a symbol with open arms, allowing our culture to continue to welcome and thank all of us who were here before the next comers, like the native Americans who taught us that Thanks Giving lesson.

Get the facts at Pew. The Pew Hispanic Center continues to provide resources and leadership in this important area:

“The nation’s total immigrant population reached a record 40.4 million in 2011, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data by the Pew Hispanic Center. Over the last decade, the number of immigrants in the U.S. has grown by more than 9 million. The number of unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S. grew in the early part of the decade before peaking at 12 million in 2007. It is now at 11.1 million as of 2011, the last year for which an estimate is available.”

New Data: Statistical Portrait of the Foreign Born, 2011

Report: Unauthorized Immigrants: 11.1 Million in 2011

Report: Net Migration from Mexico Falls to Zero

via Pew Hispanic Center – Chronicling Latinos Diverse Experiences in a Changing America.

Mexico and the United States: The rise of Mexico | The Economist

Policy ThinkShop Blogger — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 03:32:59 +0000

The London Economist, like no one else can, gives us Americans a view of our neighborhood and the sleeping giant South of the Border…

“NEXT week the leaders of North America’s two most populous countries are due to meet for a neighbourly chat in Washington, DC. The re-elected Barack Obama and Mexico’s president-elect, Enrique Peña Nieto, have plenty to talk about: Mexico is changing in ways that will profoundly affect its big northern neighbour, and unless America rethinks its outdated picture of life across the border, both countries risk forgoing …”

More via Mexico and the United States: The rise of Mexico | The Economist.

Venezuela’s presidential election: Here to stay | The Economist

Policy ThinkShop Blogger — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 04:33:56 +0000

HUGO CHÁVEZ has said he wants to remain in office as Venezuela’s president until 2031. He moved six years closer to that goal on October 7th, when voters re-elected him to a new term, by a margin of almost ten points over his centrist rival, Henrique Capriles of the Democratic Unity (MUD) coalition. With …

More via Venezuela’s presidential election: Here to stay | The Economist.

Chavez's socialist rule at risk as Venezuelans vote | Reuters

Policy ThinkShop Blogger — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 20:13:09 +0000

Hugo Chavez loyalists blew bugles in a wake up call for voters on Sunday as the Venezuelan leader faced the biggest electoral challenge yet to his socialist rule from a young rival …

More via Chavez’s socialist rule at risk as Venezuelans vote | Reuters.

Venezuela’s presidential election: The autocrat and the ballot box | The Economist

Policy ThinkShop Blogger — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 03:14:20 +0000

ON SEPTEMBER 12th a queue of stationary vehicles kilometres long blocked the coastal highway that leads out of Puerto Cabello. “Politics,” said a resident, wearily, by way of explanation.

The politics in question were taking place beside the entrance to the port city’s weed-infested airstrip. A small group of supporters was waiting to escort …

More via Venezuela’s presidential election: The autocrat and the ballot box | The Economist.

Brazil’s trade policy: Seeking protection | The Economist

Policy ThinkShop Blogger — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 08:10:50 +0000

OPPOSITE Rio de Janeiro’s best-known shopping mall, just before the tunnel that takes drivers to the beach resorts of Copacabana and Ipanema, stands a gleaming new showroom for JAC Motors, a state-owned Chinese car maker. The prominence of the location is appropriate: imported Chinese cars have suddenly become a visible presence on Brazil’s roads. This has alarmed Brazil’s car industry and President …

MORE via Brazil’s trade policy: Seeking protection | The Economist.

Steven Donziger, Chevron, Ecuador’s Environmental Rights : The New Yorker

Policy ThinkShop Blogger — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:53:04 +0000

The jungle outpost of Lago Agrio is in northeastern Ecuador, where the elevation plummets from the serrated ridge of the Andes to the swampy lowlands of the Amazon Basin. Ecuadorans call the region the …

MORE via Steven Donziger, Chevron, Ecuador’s Environmental Rights : The New Yorker.

World economy to trudge on in 2012 despite Europe: poll | Reuters

Policy ThinkShop Blogger — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 18:10:37 +0000

Europe faces another year of dismal economic performance in 2012 that will weigh on global growth, but emerging markets and the United States should at least keep the world economy moving in the right direction.

MORE via World economy to trudge on in 2012 despite Europe: poll | Reuters.

The Hispanicisation of America: The law of large numbers | The Economist

Policy ThinkShop Blogger — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 17:21:18 +0000

SWEEPING his hand in all directions, from the Mormon Temple to Utah’s State Capitol and the Great Salt Lake, Tony Yapias, the director of the Proyecto Latino de Utah and a leading Hispanic activist in the state, cannot suppress a smirk. “This was Mexico,” he says. In 1847, when the Mormon pioneers …

MORE via The Hispanicisation of America: The law of large numbers | The Economist.

Anonymous Threatens Mexico’s Murderous Drug Lords | Danger Room | Wired.com

Policy ThinkShop Blogger — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 01:34:32 +0000

A ruthless campaign of killing, extortion and kidnapping by Mexico’s powerful Zetas drug cartel has created plenty of enemies, from the Mexican government to paramilitary vigilantes to rival cartels. But now the Zetas have a new adversary: the hacker collective …

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A tough new Alabama law targets illegal immigrants and sends families fleeing - The Washington Post

Policy ThinkShop Blogger — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 16:53:27 +0000

Trailer by trailer, yard sale by yard sale, and pew by empty pew, a poor but tightknit immigrant community on Alabama’s breezy Gulf Coast is rapidly disintegrating.

This time it is not a tornado or hurricane uprooting families and scattering them to the winds. It is a new state law, largely upheld last week by a federal district judge, that seeks to drive illegal immigrants from …

MORE via A tough new Alabama law targets illegal immigrants and sends families fleeing – The Washington Post.

Foreign Aid Set to Take Hit in U.S. Budget Crisis - NYTimes.com

Policy ThinkShop Blogger — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 05:54:43 +0000

America’s budget crisis at home is forcing the first significant cuts in overseas aid in nearly two decades, a retrenchment that officials and advocates say reflects the country’s diminishing ability to …

MORE via Foreign Aid Set to Take Hit in U.S. Budget Crisis – NYTimes.com.

A game of catch-up | The Economist

Policy ThinkShop Blogger — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 07:24:28 +0000

QUARRY BANK MILL is a handsome five-storey brick building set in the valley of the river Bollin at Styal, a small English village a few miles south of Manchester. It was built in 1784 by Samuel Greg, a merchant, who found profit in supplying cotton thread to Lancashire’s weavers. The raw cotton shipped from America’s slave plantations was processed on the latest machinery, Richard Arkwright’s water frame. Later Greg extended the factory and installed coal-fired steam engines to add to the water power from the Bollin. All this gave a huge boost to productivity. In 1700 a spinster with a pedal-driven spinning wheel might take 200 hours to produce a pound of yarn. By the 1820s it would take her around …

MORE via A game of catch-up | The Economist.

THE POLICY THINKSHOP …………………… "Think Together…"

Policy ThinkShop Blogger — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 03:17:04 +0000

Latest News and Opportunities for Policy Thinking that can bring about community outcomes we can all be proud of:

Please visit the the following link to register for this unique opportunity to learn and share hispanic healthcare policy knowhow…

MORE via THE POLICY THINKSHOP …………………… “Think Together…”.

Percentage of Americans Living in Poverty Rises to Highest Level Since 1993 - NYTimes.com

Policy ThinkShop Blogger — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 04:45:39 +0000

Another 2.6 million people slipped into poverty in the United States last year, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday, and the number of Americans living below the official poverty line, 46.2 million people, was the highest number in the 52 years the bureau has been …

MORE via Percentage of Americans Living in Poverty Rises to Highest Level Since 1993 – NYTimes.com.

Brazil’s Boom Draws Americans Eager to Profit - NYTimes.com

Policy ThinkShop Blogger — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 08:47:39 +0000

Pondering the financial storms lashing Europe and the United States, Seth Zalkin, a casually dressed American banker, sipped a demitasse and seemed content with his decision to move here in March with his wife and …

MORE via Brazil’s Boom Draws Americans Eager to Profit – NYTimes.com.

Homeland Security sued over immigrant detention - latimes.com

Policy ThinkShop Blogger — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 03:52:01 +0000

Reporting from Washington— A Chicago group has filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court against the Department of Homeland Security, charging that its practice of asking local police to detain immigrants when there’s no evidence of illegal …

MORE via Homeland Security sued over immigrant detention – latimes.com.

Data and Resources: Country of Origin Profiles - Pew Hispanic Center

Policy ThinkShop Blogger — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 01:03:47 +0000

Nearly two-thirds of Hispanics in the United States self-identify as being of Mexican origin. Nine of the other ten largest Hispanic origin groups—Puerto Rican, Cuban, Salvadoran, Dominican, Guatemalan, Colombian, Honduran, Ecuadorian and Peruvian—account for about a quarter of the U.S. Hispanic population. There are differences across these ten population groups in the share of each that is foreign born, citizen (by birth or naturalization), and proficient in English. They are also of varying age, tend to live in different areas within the U.S, and have varying levels of education, homeownership rates, income, and poverty rates.

MORE via Data and Resources: Country of Origin Profiles – Pew Hispanic Center.

Clinical trial raises hope for cancer treatment - latimes.com

Policy ThinkShop Blogger — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 05:04:28 +0000

In a potential breakthrough in cancer research, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have genetically engineered patients’ T cells — a type of white blood cell — to attack cancer cells in advanced cases of a common type of leukemia.

Two of the three patients who received doses of the designer T cells in a clinical trial have remained cancer-free for more than a year, the researchers said.

Experts not connected with the trial said the feat was important because it suggested that T cells could be tweaked to kill a range of cancers, including ones of the blood, breast and colon.

“This is a huge accomplishment — huge,” said …

MORE via Clinical trial raises hope for cancer treatment – latimes.com.

Growth of Mexican-American Population - Pew Research Center

Policy ThinkShop Blogger — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 06:51:49 +0000

In the decade from 2000 to 2010, the Mexican-American population grew by 7.2 million as a result of births and 4.2 million as a result of new immigrant arrivals. This new trend — true of all Hispanic-American populations — means in contrast with the previous two decades, births have overtaken immigration as the main driver of the dynamic growth in the U.S. Hispanic population. The current surge in births among Mexican-Americans is largely attributable to the immigration wave that has brought more than 10 million immigrants to the U.S. from Mexico since 1970. At the same time, Mexican government data shows that the number of Mexicans annually leaving Mexico for the U.S. declined from more than one million in 2006 to 404,000 in 2010 — a 60% reduction. The decline in immigration to the U.S. is due in part to fewer job opportunities, increased border enforcement and recent strong economic growth in Mexico. Read more …

MORE via Daily Number: Growth of Mexican-American Population – Pew Research Center.

Hispanic Growth Shapes 2012 Race - WSJ.com

Policy ThinkShop Blogger — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 03:04:25 +0000

Here are two numbers that ought to worry Republicans: 56% and 64%.

Those numbers are, respectively, the percentage of America’s population growth in the last decade that came from Hispanics, and the percentage of Hispanics who voted for Democrats last year.

Here is the number that ought to worry Democrats: 69%.

That is the percentage of eligible Hispanic voters who didn’t show up to vote in 2010′s midterm elections.

This picture—of a big and growing Hispanic population, friendly to Democrats yet still a sleeping giant in electoral terms—explains much of the activity you are seeing in early rounds of the

MORE via Hispanic Growth Shapes 2012 Race – WSJ.com.