Hispanics in the Usa

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There is no doubt that Hispanic immigration constitutes something new in the history of groups seeking to live and work in the United States . The first is, of course, language. Despite varying dialects and usage, all Hispanics share a common language. With that language also come shared customs, historical experiences, and religious identity. Furthermore, Hispanics are never that far from the home from which they came. Continued contact with the home, family, and friends of origin is easy to maintain possibly weakening the patriotic ties and corresponding loyalty to the United States. For example, the Pew Hispanic Center reported in November 2003 that six million immigrants from Latin America sent money to their families back home, primarily to Mexico and El Salvador. These remittances are estimated to come close to $30 billion making it the largest remittance pattern in the world. As Robert Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center put it, “These remittances are the expression of profound emotional bonds between those separated by a border. They also represent a new kind of integration among nations undertaken not by trade negotiators but by ordinary folk to assuage their economic woes.”

Moreover, like other immigrants past and present, Hispanics settle where there are others of their own culture, and often country of origin. For example, large cities such as Miami are becoming more Hispanic in language and culture than the rest of the area around them or the state as a whole. California , for example, has gone from a Hispanic population that was 26 percent of the total in 1990 to 45 percent of the total in 2000.

Although the United States and its place in the world has changed rapidly and dramatically particularly in the 20 th century and certainly since the last large wave of European immigration, the predominant model for assimilation if that of Americanization or the adoption of a primary American identity and exclusive American citizenship as has been applied to earlier immigrants. However, in the new world of globalization, more varied definitions of American identity may emerge that nevertheless yield the same loyalty and commitment to American values that it did in the past.

Although Hispanic immigration brings with it some unique differences from previous immigrations, not all the data concerning assimilation is bleak. A number of the findings of the 2002 National Latino Survey conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center point to some optimistic trends. Even though assimilation seems to be taking longer than for previous immigrant groups, it appears that by the third generation most Hispanics both consider English as their dominant language and identify more as Americans than with their country of origin .

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