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It
was impossible not to read the article after the
May 10 headline, "Of U.S. Children Under 5,
Nearly Half are Minorities." After months of
stories on immigration matters, rallies, new
pieces of legislation, work visas and border
fences for adults, the U.S. Census was reporting
some new insights on American kids. The Census, it
turns out, has found that 45 percent of the
nation’s children under five years old are
racial or ethnic minorities and that the
percentage is increasing rapidly because of births
in the Latino population.
Opinions
about these young and different Americans are
fine: Facts are better. Demographics have a way of
marching on regardless of what anyone thinks with
implications for schools, the future workforce,
even support for retiring Americans.
Here
are the Census facts: Out of a total population of
296.4 million people in the United States, 20.3
million are children under age 5. Many millions
are the children of undocumented foreign
nationals. In five years, these children will be
well on their way through elementary school. In 15
years, most of these children will be done with
high school, many will be in college, some will
have started families of their own.
With
those facts come serious questions. Will these
children be prepared through quality education?
Will they have the confidence and balance that
come from supportive communities? Will they have
the choices and opportunities to become the best?
All of us should hope so, because the alternative
-- half the new workers in America unprepared,
imbalanced, without opportunities -- would be a
nightmare for the future of the United States.
How
bad could it be? Apply to these facts, as an
example, the litany of those who see America’s
future as one that walls off borders and restricts
business and commerce based on citizenship and
immigration documentation alone. "If they are
undocumented, they are illegal," the
conversation goes, "and they shouldn’t be
here, so send them home." So far, it seems,
so good. Who doesn’t want to see people obey the
law? But then the first of many tough questions
creeps in. Is it realistic to think the United
States government can or will round up say five
million to six million children under five years
old who may have undocumented parents?
The
casual conversation skips those logistics and
family disruptions as it continues, "But If
we cannot or will not send them home, we can at
least make their lives here harder, even
miserable, so they will want to go home on their
own or if they still stay, they will not be able
to succeed." Read those lines aloud two or
three times and you’ll be hearing the sound of
the American dream ripping apart from all ends.
Limit educational opportunities, restrict access
to health services, encourage discrimination that
cannot help but focus on race and ethnicity for
millions of children now in the U.S.?!
The
Washington Post reporters in the May 10
article went on to note that minorities already
are a majority of children younger than five in
the Greater Washington area that includes Northern
Virginia. That also is true for other, more
traditional high-immigration areas such as Los
Angeles, Houston and Miami. These areas already
surpass the national average of about one-third of
residents belonging to a racial or ethnic
minority. And higher percentages of such
minorities, according to William H. Frey,
demographer with the Brookings Institute in
Washington, can be a good thing.
Frey
sees in 20 years a "multicultural population
that will probably be more tolerant, accommodating
to other races, and more able to succeed in a
global economy." But it won’t be enough to
hope that this positive analysis comes true.
Virginians, along with other Americans, are going
to have to work to make it so. Otherwise the
transition from one-third now to over one-half of
all Americans belonging to a racial or ethnic
minority group in a few decades will be filled
with fear, intolerance, bitterness, ugliness and
hatred.
None
of those negatives ever made sense in America and
especially not now that we know the Census numbers
on our children, our future.
--
May 15, 2006
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