One of the most terrible stereotypes against Latinos is that we fornicate like rabbits and families tend to have far too many children. (See the controversy around so-called “anchor babies”, for instance). Yet a U.S. government report has shown that the Latino birthrate fell in 2008.According to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) the overall birthrate in 2008 fell by almost 2% after previously reaching its highest point in two decades. Birth rates declined in nearly all categories; for example, the birth rate for teens fell slightly including a 4% drop among those ages 18 and 19. The “most dramatic change”, however, was among Latinos:
The most dramatic change, according to Stephanie Ventura, chief of the reproductive statistics branch at the NCHS, was among Hispanics. The overall birth rate for that group declined for the first time in years, with births to Hispanic teens declining by 5 percent to hit a historic low.The NCHS data may be incorporated into the immigration debate since the national fertility rate fell to the point that “Americans were no longer giving birth to enough children to keep the population from declining.”
Ventura doesn't want to speculate about the decline in Hispanic births, but for the overall population, she says it's the economy. "As early as 2007," she says, "some job sectors were declining."
Image- Latina
Online Sources- Washington Post, NPR, Reuters, CNN, Orange County Weekly
de Clermont - How can you so rapidly intimate that the 2% decline in Hispanic births for ONLY 2008 is a significant trend? As the article mentions teh economy may have a major impact on that. Also, do not forget that due to the recession many Latin American illegal immigrants have decided not to emigrate to the USA or returned to their native country. Additionally, regarding your comment at the outset of the article mentioning the belief that Hispanics tend to have larger families, please do not forget the demographic realities of Hispanics in the USA. I believe that there are 3 levels of Hispanics in the USA. Group 1) those that are several generations in the USA. They are more adapted to the US natality culture and likely to have fewer children. 2) those that have been in the USA 2,3 or perhaps 4 generations and hold views closer to the typical Hispanic natality culture than Group 1 - sort of a hybrid, and 3) those that are new to the USA or 1st or 2nd generation. This last group is probably more likely to have larger families. If there are fewer of Group 3 in the USA or many do not have jobs, they may decide to not have children under the economic conditions improve. Let's see what happens over the next 5 years. As for my wife (group 3 Mexican) and I (group 2 Spanish) we chose not to have children due to the global overpopulation. We come both from large families (4 and 7 siblings) and large extended families and loved every minute of it. But we cannot bear to see our own children perhaps suffer as so many will due to pollution, overpopulation, overextension of natural resources, etc.
ReplyDeleteI am very concerned about demographhics but also about the footprint of humanity. Hear that Hispanics in USA had a 2% decline is a good new but still its fertility rate is 2.9 children per woman which is higher than in Mexico itself (2.1-2.2), Brazil (1.9), Cuba (1.4), Puerto Rico (1.5), China (1.6), India (2.7) and other developing countries and since every American (regardless ethnicity) has higher footprint in the global warming than any other, this is a good new. However more people should decide to have fewer children. I am mexican living in Mexico, however I do think that if we expect to live better, we also should expect to be sustainable and have fewer children (specially groups like HIspanics in USA, Mexicans, Central Americans, Indians, Sub-Saharan African which are far higher than replacement of 2.0 children.
ReplyDeleteLatinos are simply a mess, and they make this world an even bigger mess exploiting themselves to the rest of the world reproducing like there's no tomorrow! And if that's not bad as it is, the majority of them do not graduate high school, giving their children a very low standard of living; leaving everything on the hand of the taxpayer. This isnt a stereotype, this is reality; there needs to be drastic changes, seriously!
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