Wednesday, 8 March 2000
http://www.azstarnet.com/public/dnews/0308N02.html
WASHINGTON (AP) - Census data being released today show that
more than a fourth of Hispanics, the nation's fastest-growing
minority, live below the poverty level. Only one in 10 is college-educated.
More than 25 percent of the nation's 31 million Hispanics lived
below poverty level in 1998, considered then to be $16,600 for
a family of four. About 8 percent of non-Hispanic whites lived
in poverty in 1998.
Getting better wages could get tougher for Hispanics, especially
recently arrived immigrants, because of increasing demand for
college-educated workers, said Gumecindo Salas, vice president
for governmental relations of the Hispanic Association for Colleges
and Universities.
About 11 percent of Hispanics had bachelor's degrees or higher,
compared with 28 percent of non-Hispanic whites.
Within the Hispanic population, Cubans are more likely to have
a college education and least likely to live in poverty.
The data are part of the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey
on Hispanics, the last population estimates before the 2000 Census.
``The tradition among all immigrants in the U.S. is that after
two or three generations, you tend to see a movement up in educational
level,'' Salas said. But with Hispanics, ``because you have so
many coming in over time, it tends to undermine that level of
improvement. It may not appear to be improvement, but it actually
is.''
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