Immigration Effects on California

 

 

· Labor market unable to absorb huge flow. A recently released report by the prestigious Rand Think Tank found that the California job market cannot continue to absorb the huge number of low-skill, under-educated immigrants. The report found that the number of low-skill jobs, 2. 5 million, is almost unchanged from 1970 and that the growing number of immigrants are putting increased demands on public services, especially schools.

· Agricultural Labor. According to a UC publication (1998) 91. 5% of the farm and field labor in California is comprised of Hispanics.  Most of the Hispanic workers are from Mexican origin and about 42% without residential status.

· New market opportunities and shifts. The wide variety of ethnicities, especially the growth of the Hispanic population, in the state also permits the development of new cropping systems that provide for their different culinary interests, keeping a captive market.

· Agricultural abundance (valued at $13 billion annually) threatened. A new study by the American Farmland Trust found that with California's population projected to nearly double by 2040 and the population of the state's agricultural heartland, the Central Valley projected to triple to 12 million, over 1 million acres – one in every seven – will be urbanized. Cornell University expert on agricultural ecology David Pimentel, finds that population growth is a major contributor to the 122,000 acres (3%) of cropland lost from production each year. If this trend continues, in less than 20 years about one-half of California's farmland will no longer be available for production.

· Higher than average immigrant fertility a growing contributor to population growth.   While births to U. S.  born women have remained close to the 1970 level of 324,375 for more than a decade, rising to just 334,008 in 1992, the total number of annual births in California has jumped from 362,652 to 600,838 – an increase largely attributable to immigrant women whose share of total births has quadrupled from 11% in 1970 to 44% in 1992.

· Human growth is squeezing out other life forms (negative environmental impact). In California one of every three vertebrate species and one in ten native plant species are in serious danger of extinction. Habitat the size of San Francisco is converted from natural vegetation or agricultural land to residential or commercial use every six months.   72% of California's native freshwater fish are listed as threatened or endangered, and are likely candidates for listing, or are already extinct. A study of storm water run-off flowing into Santa Monica Bay found that over 65,000 pounds of lead, 18,000 pounds of copper and a staggering 2,110,000 pounds of oil and grease are washed into the bay each year.

The state lists 34 species of animals and 46 species of plants as having been extirpated since the 1880s and the combined state and federal lists of rare, threatened or endangered plant and animal species in the state numbers 330, although state and federal officials admit that there are far more candidate species identified.

In the 1780’s with a population numbering in the hundreds of thousands, California had an estimated 5 million acres of wetlands. Now, after justtwo centuries of explosive population growth, there are over 32 million people and only about 454,000 acres of wetlands – a 90% loss.

Although California's "ecological footprint" spans the globe, key local resources such as water are insufficient for continued growth. Because of trade and pollution, the resources and environmental impacts of California's high-consumption lifestyles do not come from (or remain) strictly within the state's borders, i. e. the land area necessary to support California's population and absorb its wastes is much greater than the area of the state (its ecological footprint).

The average decline in the state's water table is an astounding 0. 5 to 3. 5 feet per year. Projected shortfalls of water needed by 2020 are estimated at 4. 2 million acre-feet in good rainfall years and nearly twice that in drought years. The state's top water officials admit that even if all practical conservation measures are carried out, rising demand in the coming decades will exceed supply by the amount of water needed to irrigate a million acres of crops or sustain a city of 800,000 people.

· California, immigrant welfare magnet. By 1990, California's welfare benefit package was second only to Alaska in its generosity. Between 1980 and 1990 the fraction of new immigrants not on welfare who chose to live in California actually dropped. However, the fraction of new immigrants on welfare who chose to reside in California sharply increased from 36. 9% to 45. 4 %.

· Educational system overwhelmed. The CA Department of Finance projects the student population to balloon from just over 5 million in 1992-93 to nearly 7 million in a decade, with two-thirds of the growth coming from immigration. The state would have to build a classroom every hour, and a 650-student school every day just to meet the increased enrollments.

California also ranks first in the number of students who speak little or no English, 1. 4 million or one of every four students. Nine of the top 15 school districts with the highest number of limited English proficiency students are in California: Santa Ana (69%), Glendale (52%), Los Angeles (46%), Garden Grove (43%), Fresno (32%), San Francisco (29%), San Diego (26%), Montebello (26%). More than two-thirds of students entering Cal State campuses in the Los Angeles area lack high school level math and English skills. At some high schools not a single graduate going on to Cal State schools passed the basic skill tests.