University of Latvia

Department of Political Science

(Joel Moses)

Situation of Minority Groups in America: Hispanics, Asian Americans and Native Americans

Irita Íîse,

3rd year student

political science

December ‘95

United States are often called the “melting pot” because people of different nationalities can come to America and become Americans. Most of immigrants want to achieve better economic standard or to flee from political oppression. Not in all times they got all what they wanted - neighbors often were hostile and state did not provide new residents all rights and freedoms. Although America is claimed to be a land where citizens are guaranteed all rights until second half of this century minority groups did not get equal treatment compared to majority of population which was white and Protestant. If a person comes from foreign country and does not look like rest of the people he most likely will be viewed with suspicion. Hispanics, Native Americans, African Americans, and Asian Americans are among the groups which have suffered most of all. African Americans, as the largest minority group, are relatively well organized and they have gained much in improvement of their situation. Other groups - Asians, Native’s and Hispanics - are not so influential. The number of Asians and Hispanics in America is growing and in next twenty years Hispanics are going to become the largest minority group leaving African Americans in the second place.

Territorial distribution

Hispanics constitute 8% of the American population, from which Mexican Americans are the majority, 12% are Puerto Ricans and 5% are Cuban Americans. Most Mexican Americans live in south - west, some in Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Most of the Puerto Ricans live in New York and New Jersey area. Majority of Cuban Americans reside in Florida, some also in New York City.

Native Americans live all over the United States, but their population is the largest in Oklahoma, Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Alaska.

The immigration in the last decades has increased - in 1990 it constituted more than 30% of total U.S. population growth. From 1980 to 1990 number of Asians has increased by nearly 4 Million, Hispanics - by 8 Million, Indians - only by 500 thousand. The most affected states are California, New York, Texas, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, Connecticut. If Asian Americans and Hispanics can grow in their number regarding immigration and their birth rates than Native Americans cannot immigrate from nowhere - United States is their fatherland.

History in America

Immigration has occurred in waves. These waves for different ethnic groups can be dated by different years. Native Americans is a special case. Mexican Americans too have very long lived in territory what is now south-west of United States. By 1853, these territories were acquired by U.S. and California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, Nevada, parts of Wyoming and Oklahoma that was Mexican land became owned by United States. Mexicans who lived on that territory got all citizens’ rights but these rights were often violated. Later immigration waves of Mexicans were caused by economical reasons - Mexicans were looking for job and better life.

Puerto Rico is a United States commonwealth, therefore Puerto Ricans can freely move between Puerto Rico and United States. In last decade more Puerto Ricans move from United States to Puerto Rico than from Puerto Rico to U.S.

Different reasons have caused immigration from Cuba. Cubans come to United States for political reasons, they are afraid of repression under Castro’s regime.

Asians came to United States in 19th century and worked on railroads and factories. In more recent waves of immigration highly skilled people have come to U.S.

Native Americans

About 10 Million Native Americans were living on newly discovered continent in 15th century. In history there was a tradition: those who discovered other lands were entitled to them, but it was different with America. Theologian Francisco de Vitoria reached the conclusion that according to religious accuracy natives were the true owners of the land. That doctrine was adopted as the official one and Indian tribes were treated as legitimate entities capable of dealing with the European nations by treaty. (Deloria and Lytle, 1983: 3) Of course, not always Indians got completely fair treatment, sometimes they were told another thing than it was in reality. After foundation of United States of America it was necessary to formulate official relation to Indian tribes. In 1787 Confederation Congress stated that Indian land cannot be taken away from them without their consent. In 1789 Congress designed the Indian tribes as foreign nations. In 1830’s some court decisions laid a new foundation for relations between Native Americans and United States government. Chief Justice John Marshall recognized that Indian nations did possess some degree of sovereignty. ((Deloria and Lytle, 1983: 4) Later policy shifted from segregation to assimilation. In 1830 was introduced a bill to compel the Indians to move, but that could not last for long time - there was no more possibility to push Indians westward. The alternative was assimilation. In 1887 The General Allotment Act was passed. As a result number of acres in reservation was reduced from 140 Million to about 47 Million acres. The Indian Reorganization Act (1934) ended the government’s policy of allotment.

Economical situation

Hispanics is very diverse group and their economical situation is different depending on their background. Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans are the poorest among Hispanics. About 27% of them live in poverty and their economical situation is getting worse. That is caused by language barrier and lack of training. Different situation is with Cuban Americans. They had come from educated middle class and their education helped them to become wealthy relatively quickly.

Asian Americans from the latest immigration waves have also reached quite high living standard because of their good education and professional skills. Of all Asian Americans about 40% of those over age of 25 have college degrees, and their median family income is higher than that of whites.

Native Americans families have lower income as average white family and more Natives than whites live in poverty. Their economic situation was improved by Indian Games Regulatory Act, which allowed Native Americans to have casinos on their land.

Political organizations

Hispanics have formed their own political organizations in order to fight against discrimination. In 1921 was formed “Hijos de America” (Sons of America), in 1929 - The League of the United Latin American Citizens with goal to promote integration into American culture. There are also militant Cuban-American organizations.

Indian tribes are small and scattered and it has been difficult to form any representative organization. Some small groups were founded: the National Indian Youth Council (1960), the American Indian Movement. These groups tried to remind about injustices toward Native Americans using radical, extreme actions.

Participation

Hispanics have very low level of political participation in elections: about 10 percentage points less than the national average. That is explained by lower economical status, but compared with the same economical status whites Hispanics are more going to vote than whites. In last decades some representatives in Congress are of Hispanic origin. In 1976 there were 5 Hispanics in the House of Representatives, in 1995 - 18. Two of Clinton’s cabinet members are Hispanics. Mexican Americans have lived in America for a long time and they have gained representation in local authorities much more than other minorities. Puerto Ricans are not doing so well, but Cuban Americans are becoming stronger and stronger as politically influential group.

Native Americans and Asian have not been successful in getting political power.

Culture and education

Hispanics who immigrate very often know only Spanish and they live in compact groups where only Spanish is used. That helps to preserve cultural traditions but does not help to integrate into the American society and that in turn results in lower-paid jobs and lower socio-economic status. In some areas Spanish is used together with English in official structures because of large Hispanics population. That has raised question of declaring English as official language of United States. Bilingual education programs are supported by many Hispanics groups as a civil right. Some want these programs to be permanent but others think that they must be contemporary and only help students until they know English.

Native Americans lived in reservations and were able to care about traditions although only in 1990 the Native Americans Language Act was introduced. According to it Congers declared that Native-American languages are unique and serve an important role in maintaining Indian community are responsible for the survival of native languages and native cultures.

Discrimination

All these groups are different from whites and therefore they had more possibilities to be discriminated. Hispanics did not read English and that unabled them to take an active part in politics and voting. There existed also barriers in public facilities, education, and employment.

Asian Americans suffered from prejudice. In 1942 “relocation” camps were formed for all Japanese Americans in order to guarantee state security. All Japanese were regarded as potential enemies. Only in 1988 Congress provided funds to compensate former camp inhabitants - $ 1,25 billion for 65 000 people.

Native Americans have suffered from injustice all the time. Their land was taken away, they were object to intense assimilation, their natural way of living was distributed.

Conclusion

It is possible that in 2030 more than 30% of America’s population will be non-whites. Situation is changing all the time. The big number of immigrants influences American culture. But it is clear that people who come to United States are willing to integrate into the American society as quickly as possible and actually no difference exists between whites and non-whites when they are asked to regard themselves as patriotic: 89% agree that they are very patriotic. More than 90% rather live in United States than anywhere else.

Literature: Deloria and Lytle (1983) American Indians, American Justice