Daily Headlines: November 20, 2015

* Colombia: On the third anniversary of the start of peace talks, the Colombian government and the FARC rebels claimed that they are very close to signing off on a final agreement.

* Caribbean: Amnesty International accused the Dominican Republic of human rights violations by stripping the citizenship of tens of thousands of “stateless” residents with a Haitian background.

* Mexico: According to a Pew Research Center report, 149,000 more Mexicans departed from the U.S. between 2009 and 2014 than those entering the country.

* Venezuela: Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro said that he would review the already fractured relations with the U.S. over allegations of surveillance against PDVSA employees.

YouTube Source – teleSUR English
 
Online Sources – Business Standard, The Guardian, Pew Hispanic Center, UPI

Daily Headlines: November 14, 2014

* Latin America: A new Pew Research Center report found that most Latin Americans identify themselves as Catholic though their proportion has dropped by 25% since 1970.

* Venezuela: A Venezuelan judge refused to free opposition figure Leopoldo López who has been in jail and awaiting trial since giving himself in to authorities last February.

* Brazil: The real fell to weakest level since April 2005 reportedly due to investor worry over who will be appointed as Brazil’s next Finance Minister.

* Mexico: The Supreme Court ruled that three people convicted over the 1997 Acteal massacre should be immediately released due to violations of their rights to due process.

Video Source – Pew Research Center via YouTube

Online Sources – ABC News; The Guardian; Latin American Herald Tribune; Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: November 15, 2013

* Latin America: A Pew Research Center concluded that remittances to Latin America has more than doubled since 2000 despite a decrease in money orders to Mexico.

* Brazil: The Brazilian government reported a 28% increase in Amazon rainforest deforestation after four years of declining rates.

* Bolivia: A new study found that three in ten Bolivians nsume coca leaves for traditional and medicinal purposes.

* El Salvador: Armed men reportedly tried to destroy the records of a non-profit group investigating the disappearances of thousands of children missing during the Salvadoran civil war.

Daily Headlines: September 4, 2013

* Mexico: Press group Reporters Without Borders called for the immediate release of four journalists who were recently arrested while covering protests against the Mexican government’s plans for educational reform.

* U.S.: A new report from the Pew Research Center found that nine of the top ten U.S. states where the Latino population has grown the fastest are located in the South.

* Chile: Three men who claimed to have been sexually abused by “prominent priest” Fernando Karadima in the 1980s have filed a $900,000 lawsuit against him.

* Argentina: Another day, another trial for ex-Argentina president and convicted arms trafficker Carlos Menem. 

Video Source – YouTube via user panamericanavideos (“Thousands of protesters (on Monday) took to the streets of Mexico City to protest against the reforms proposed by President Enrique Peña Nieto”).

Online Sources- LAHT; Huffington Post; GlobalPost; Businsesweek

World Watch: Speculating

* Sweden: Russian human rights figure Svetlana Gannushkina, the Wikileaks website and several “Arab Spring” activists are among the nominees that could win the Nobel Peace Prize that will be announced on Friday.

* World: Greece’s public sector was practically shutdown as a result of a general strike while more people joined demonstrators near Wall Street in New York City.

* U.S.: According to a Pew Research Center study one-third of post-9/11 veterans don’t believe that the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan were “worth fighting for.”

* Somalia: President Sharif Ahmed declared three days of mourning as a result of a suicide truck bomb that killed seventy-two people in Mogadishu.

Image – Flickr via user openDemocracy (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Online Sources- CNN, The Guardian, Monsters & Critics, CBS News, NPR

Report: Latinos help college enrollment boost

Latinos and other ethnic minorities are behind an increase in college enrollment according to a study released by the Pew Research Center.

The report found that the number of freshmen students in college has grown by 6% between 2007 and 2008, the first year of the U.S. recession. During that period Hispanic freshman enrollment grew by 15%, outpacing blacks (8%), Asians (6%) and whites (3%). Though the boost in first-year enrollment was across al levels of colleges, researchers found that minority students tended to be bunched in community colleges and trade schools rather than four-year institutions.

Why has this minority enrollment surge occurred? One reason according to the study is the demographic change in the Latino population. Indeed, last week we mentioned that Census data found an increase in the number of Latinos, which tends to be younger than the general populace. In addition the study cited a larger number of Latinos competing high school, a record high of 70% in October 2008. Another factor not mentioned by researchers is that Latino youth seeking jobs have been hit very hard by the recession and their unemployment rate in January reached 13.9%. Hence, going to college becomes a more favorable option.

Not all was good news for Latinos in the Pew study, as the AP noted:

(...) while Hispanics have seen recent gains in college enrollment, they still lag overall. Hispanics make up roughly 12 percent of full-time undergraduate and graduate students, compared to their 16 percent representation in the total U.S. population.

"These findings are only half reassuring," (Pew researcher Richard) Fry said. "Many Hispanic teens still are not graduating high school, and the high school gains may not be sustained when the teen labor market revives. It also remains to be seen how many of these additional minority freshmen will actually complete degrees."

Image- avstop.com
Online Sources- Pew Research Center, AP, Washington Post, The Latin Americanist

Educational disconnect hurts Latinos says Pew

Most young Latinos believe that a college education is vital yet only half aspire to get a bachelor's degree according to a study released by the Pew Hispanic Center (PHC).

The PHC report released on Wednesday gave several reasons why the educational aspirations of Latino students don’t tend to correspond to reality. Chief among these was cited by nearly three out of four respondents who said that their educational plans were cut short by family obligations. Despite most parents’ belief that going to college is "the most important thing…to do right after high school," nearly three in five young Latinos claimed that parents need to play a “more active role” in their children’s education.

Other factors cited by the nearly 2000 respondents in the PHC survey included language and foreign-born Latino students:

Diversity among the young Latino population further complicates educational achievement. The survey found that foreign-born students, who compose 35 percent of Latino youths, are much more likely to drop out of high school or abandon higher education. Only 20 percent of foreign-born Latinos pursue school after age 18, the survey found.

Most of these students are in English as a Second Language programs in public schools. Richard Fry, a Pew Hispanic Center senior research associate, said this group was becoming increasingly isolated.

"They're increasingly going to school with themselves," Fry said. "They're not really upset about the institutions educating them. ... It presents a dilemma."

Mark Lopez- the study’s author- hopes that the report can change negative and false perceptions about Latinos not aspiring for a greater education as well as guide schools on how they can work with students' families.

Image- Denver Post (“Todd Legge, who teaches "Spanish for Spanish Speakers" at (Colorado’s) Jefferson High School, helps Carmen Gomez, 16, left, and Jose Luevano, 17.”)
Online Sources- Pew Research Center, McClatchy, USA TODAY, mydeseret.com

Report: Most “Boricuas” live on mainland

According to the Pew Research Center, more Puerto Ricans reside in the fifty U.S. states than the commonwealth itself.

The report by Pew cited statistical data from the U.S. Census Bureau stating that 4.1 million Puerto Ricans live on the mainland as well as Hawaii and Alaska compared to 3.7 million on the island. In addition, roughly one-third of those born in the fifty U.S. states were born in Puerto Rico before moving on.

The profile of Puerto Ricans by Pew also revealed other interesting data:

The numbers showed Puerto Ricans are the second-largest population of Hispanic origin residing in the United States, accounting for 9.1 percent of the U.S. Hispanic population in 2007, while Mexicans constituted 29.2 million, or 64.3 percent, of the Hispanic population.

The analysis also found as a group, Puerto Ricans are older than Hispanics on average but are younger than the U.S. population. They were found to be less likely to be married than either Hispanics overall or the U.S. population overall.

The Pew Center said 56 percent of Puerto Rican women who had given birth in the prior 12 months were unmarried.

Image- New York Sun (Revelers enjoy the 2008 Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York)
Online Sources- Pew Research Center, Los Angeles Times, UPI

Survey reveals global perspectives

The Pew Research Center published the results of a survey conducted in twenty-four countries including Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina. Several media reports (i.e. this and this) have focused on how most respondents prefer Barack Obama over John McCain as the next president of the U.S. However, the poll also revealed several interesting perspectives from different regions such as Latin America. (An overview of the survey can be read here).

* China has been making serious inroads into Latin America’s economy and this was reflected by most respondents in the region. Still, an average of 76% of respondents feel that the U.S. continues to have lots of influence in the Americas.

* Like most of the world, a plurality of respondents in Latin America believed that the U.S. economy is hurting their national economies. Also, favorable views of the U.S. fell by 9% in Mexico. (It rose by 3% and 6% % in Brazil and Argentina, respectively).

* Majorities in 18 of the 24 countries surveyed describe current economic conditions in their country as bad. One of the countries where “good” ratings dropped the most was Argentina (23% “good” rating in 2008 vs. 46% in 2007).

* Do Latin Americans share the support for Obama that their vecinos in the U.S. have? The answer is yes, but by varying margins amongst those who are following the U.S. election in Brazil (23%) and Mexico (11%).

So what conclusions do you draw from the data?

Sources- Guardian UK, International Herald Tribune, Pew Research Center, AFP, Voice of America, Monsters & Critics, The Latin Americanist

Image- Mindbird Maps & Books