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At the Core and in the Margins
Incorporation of Mexican Immigrants in Two Rural Midwestern Communities
By Julia Albarracín Michigan State University Press
Copyright © 2016 Julia Albarracín
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-61186-206-5
CHAPTER 1
Case Studies
The Cases of Beardstown and Monmouth, Illinois
This small town is OK because there are no gangs.
— Romulo, interview with the author, July 31, 2011, Monmouth, Illinois
Illinois ranked fifth in the country in its proportion of Latinos in 2010 (U.S. Census Bureau 2011). Large metropolitan areas in Illinois have traditionally attracted immigrants. More recently, immigrants have been increasingly moving to non-metro areas as well. Table 2 shows the sixteen counties with the largest proportions of Latinos in Illinois, ranging from 8 to 31 percent. Most of these counties are located in metropolitan areas. For instance, Kane, Cook, Will, Kendall, DuPage, McHenry, and DeKalb Counties are part of the Chicago-Aurora-Joliet Metropolitan Division. Boone, Winnebago, and Ogle counties belong to the Rockford Metropolitan Statistical Area. Lake County is part of the Lake County-Kenosha County, IL-WI Metropolitan Division. Finally, Rock Island County constitutes part of the Quad Cities Metropolitan Area, also known as the Davenport-Moline-Rock Island Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Some of the counties with high proportions of Latinos listed in table 2, however, are located in non-metro areas. The two counties where Beardstown and Monmouth are located, Cass and Warren, are among them. The proportion of Latinos in these two counties in 2010 was 17 percent and 8 percent, respectively (table 2). As explained later, the proportion of Latinos in the towns themselves was even higher.
New immigrant destinations in the Midwest share a number of characteristics. Table 3 shows a selection of twenty non-metropolitan counties in this region that in 2010 had at least 5 percent Latinos. The proportion of Latinos in these counties ranged from 5 percent in Putnam County, Ohio, to 47 percent in Finney, Kansas. Almost without exception, counties drawing immigrants had sizable meatpacking plants. Beardstown and Monmouth; Storm Lake and Denison, Iowa; Sioux City and Garden Island, Nebraska; Garden City and Dodge City, Kansas; McDonald and Sullivan Counties, Missouri; and Frankton, Indiana, all have meatpacking plants or related food-processing industries. Further, the only county from table 3 that did not have a meatpacking plant within thirty miles was Pulaski, Missouri. The meatpacking industry has gone through a process of mergers and acquisitions, and just a few corporations today hold most of the market share. For example, at least nine of the counties selected in this study had processing plants belonging to the Tyson group, two to Farmland Foods, Inc., and two to JBS USA LLC.
The counties selected by immigrants had relatively small populations, ranging from 13,642 in Cass County, Illinois, to 102,228 in Walworth County, Wisconsin (table 3). Research shows that the movement of Hispanics to small cities reflects their desire for lower crime rates, fewer street gangs, and greater tranquility in general (Parrado and Kandel 2008). Several of these advantages became apparent during this research. For example, Romulo explained, "This small town is ok because there are no gangs." Helena agreed that Monmouth is free of crime, and that parents can be confident their kids are fine.
Counties selected by immigrants also tended to be poorer than the average county in their respective states. As table 3 shows, 80 percent of the counties surveyed had median household incomes below their respective state medians. Thus, communities receiving increased numbers of immigrants may be economically more depressed than the average community in the Midwest. This circumstance may contribute to affordable housing and a lower cost of living in general (Dalla, Ellis, and Cramer 2005; Parrado and Kandel 2008), helping to attract immigrants to augment the local workforce. In turn, immigration can bring economic vitality to these communities.
Most of the communities (60 percent) selected by immigrants had either negative population growth or population growth rates close to zero (Donato et al. 2008; Gouveia and Saenz 2000; Jensen 2006; Johnson and Lichter 2008; Lichter and Johnson 2006). Young people in these communities tend to leave to pursue an education or in search of better jobs. Thus, immigration gains offset population losses (Donato et al. 2008). These fading communities may offer the possibility of finding jobs to younger newcomers.
Having a large community of co-ethnics is usually a "plus." These communities can help newcomers find housing and jobs, and keep their culture alive. A small community of co-ethnics, however, can also be an advantage because of the decreased competition to find jobs. To be sure, the counties in table 3 each had a significant proportion of Latinos in 2010, but ten years earlier this proportion was much smaller. For this group of counties, the growth of the Latino population between the decennial censuses of 2000 and 2010 ranged from 25 percent (Putnam, Ohio) to 266 percent (Crawford, Iowa). Therefore, even though the proportion of Latinos in these counties is increasing, these counties had historically lower proportions of Hispanics than most traditional areas of immigration.
Having less exposure to Latino immigrants can make the local population relatively unprejudiced against this group (Fennelly 2008; Kandel and Cromartie 2004). This is not to say that immigrants in new destinations face no prejudice and discrimination. "I sometimes wonder," mused Alejandra, "if we are not well received in this society, why stay?" Immigrants seem to be trying to move away from areas of high prejudice and anti-immigration sentiments, such as California, Arizona, and New Mexico.
Beardstown and Monmouth
The growth of the Latino population in Beardstown and Monmouth is fairly recent. Astable 4 shows, the proportion of Latinos in these two towns in 2000 was 18 percent and 4 percent, respectively. However, the population in Beardstown almost doubled, and in Monmouth it more than tripled between the years 2000 and 2010. Further, in 1980, the Latino population in both towns was almost nonexistent: Latinos in Beardstown accounted for 0.9 percent and in Monmouth for 1.5 percent of the total population in that year (U.S. Census Bureau 1983). Obviously, the Latino immigration to these two towns is a recent occurrence. The largest group of Latino immigrants in these two towns is Mexican, followed by Puerto Rican and Cuban (table 4). The Mexican immigrant population, the focus of this book, accounts for 78 percent of Latinos in Beardstown and 88 percent of this population group in Monmouth.
Immigrants in Beardstown and Monmouth find jobs in services, farms, and construction, among other sectors. However, the main drivers of immigration to these two towns are their hog processing plants. Beardstown is home to Excel (now Cargill), the largest hog processing plant in the state, which employs 2,300 workers (Jensen 2006). The major employer of immigrants in Monmouth is Farmland Foods, which employs 1,500 workers (Farmland n.d.). This plant was bought by Farmland Foods in 1993. It may be that the difference in size between these two plants explains the difference in size of the Latino populations in these two towns (1,994 versus 1,358). Many employees in the Farmland Foods plant work six days a week. In 2009, Excel (Beardstown) started demanding that its employees work on Saturdays.
The meatpacking industry has attracted large numbers of undocumented immigrants. These plants supposedly hire only documented workers because they require a Social Security number. In practice, however, many immigrants working at these plants are undocumented and use others' names and Social Security numbers. In 2007, Beardstown had a number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. On one occasion, enforcement agents burst into the Cargill factory, arresting sixty undocumented immigrants who worked for a cleaning company hired by Cargill. Many of these immigrants were deported, leaving close to fifty children without their parents. Raids like this one became common in Beardstown.
Besides high proportions of Latinos, these plants also employ Whites and minorities and immigrants from different parts of the world. For example, about eight hundred West Africans from countries like Togo, Senegal, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Benin live mainly in Beardstown and Rushville, but also in Springfield and Jacksonville, Illinois. Several interviewees reported working with Anglo-Americans. Floriberto and Jorge, from Beardstown, stated that more than 40 percent of the employees in their department at the plant were Anglo-Americans. Further, Rosa, also from Beardstown, mentioned her department was 90 percent Anglo-American. Many immigrants spoke of having built friendships with Anglos at work.
Schools in the area have high proportions of Latino students, and school districts in both towns have made efforts to respond to their changing populations. For example, the school district in Beardstown had 40 percent Latino students in 2011. For Monmouth, this number was 32 percent in 2009. Beardstown established a dual language program in the mid-2000s. Within this program, students take classes both in English and Spanish, switching throughout the day. The program is optional and available for native and nonnative speakers alike. In turn, Monmouth set up a bilingual kindergarten program and has recently hired a bilingual teacher to teach first graders. In addition, both districts offer ESL (English as a Second Language) classes. Thus, both towns have responded to the needs of growing bilingual populations.
Churches offer different advantages to newly arrived immigrants, in that they provide spiritual support and social networks immigrants can rely on for their incorporation into the host society. Saint Alexius Catholic Church and Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, in Beardstown and Monmouth respectively, offer Masses in Spanish, thus providing an important opportunity for immigrants who lack English language skills. Further, the priest in Beardstown made efforts to integrate the Hispanics and Anglos who attend the local Catholic Church. Other churches serve the Latino communities in Beardstown and Monmouth as well. For example, the churches Nazarene, De Restauración Cristo te Ama, Ebenezer Encuentro con Dios, and Nueva Vida offer services for Spanish speakers in Beardstown. The church Solid Rock offers Spanish services in Monmouth.
My research revealed that immigrants in Beardstown had better access to health care than those in Monmouth. The Cass County Health Department in Beardstown offers a full-service primary care clinic, as well as discounted rates on all of their services for uninsured patients. The Warren County Health Department in Monmouth offers only immunizations, smoking-cessation programs, breast-cancer awareness outreach, and cardiovascular-health awareness outreach. In sum, whereas immigrants in Beardstown can access primary care physicians in town at discounted rates, immigrants in Monmouth need to drive fifteen miles to the nearby town of Galesburg, Illinois, to do so.
Discrimination seems to be an issue in both towns. Latino-Anglo relationships deteriorated in Beardstown after a Latino killed an Anglo at El Flamingo bar and this Latino bar on the square was burned in retaliation. Nonetheless, these relationships have improved since then. Monmouth's history of relationships is not as rocky as the one in Beardstown, but discrimination seems to be common in this town as well. Being a Latino living in Beardstown or Monmouth seems far from ideal. Some immigrants, however, feel optimistic about their prospects for incorporation into society. "The more united we are, the easier will be our integration in this country," Jorge stated. This book will offer a snapshot of the lives of these immigrants and their degrees of incorporation into their communities.
Characteristics of the Sample in Beardstown and Monmouth
Appendix 2 compares my sample with a sample of the 2004 Pew Hispanic Center's National Survey of Latinos. My sample contained 131 cases from Beardstown and 129 cases from Monmouth. Most immigrants came from the Mexican states of Mexico, Michoacán, Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Veracruz, and Chihuahua. The mean number of years in the United States was close to eleven. Thus, the typical subject of this study was of more recent arrival than in the one by the Pew Hispanic Center. This study gave the option of answering questions in English or Spanish (appendix, no. 5). Whereas 98 percent of the respondents chose to answer the questions in Spanish, this number for the Pew sample was 86 percent.
The gender (56 percent male) distribution (appendix 2) was comparable to the gender distribution for Latinos in Beardstown and Monmouth in 2010 (appendix, no. 6; table 4). The higher proportion of men is not uncommon in places of recent immigration because many men first move alone and only later bring their families to the United States. The mean age was 32.20 for this study's sample and 36.46 for the Pew sample (appendix, no. 7; appendix 2). The results for race are somewhat puzzling (appendix, no. 9). Whereas only 5 percent of this study's sample described themselves as White, this number for the Pew sample was 43 percent. Moreover, 95 percent and 37.6 percent respectively reported their race as Hispanic. Considering that the question asked by Pew was the same one this study used, this finding requires further research. It may be that Mexican immigrants who have been in the country longer identify themselves as White in larger numbers.
This study's respondents were more likely to be married or living with a partner (92 percent) than the Pew subjects (66 percent) (appendix, no. 10; appendix 2). It may be that most single men choose bigger urban centers as their destination. Also, most respondents in the Illinois sample had children and were likely to live in a household with more than four people (appendix, no. 12; appendix 2). The number of immigrants who worked full-time was 68 percent for the Illinois sample and 52 percent for the Pew one (appendix, no. 13). This finding seems to indicate that the competition for jobs in Beardstown and Monmouth may be less intense than in the average immigrant destination.
The income level of respondents in the Illinois sample was significantly lower than that of those in the Pew sample (appendix, no. 14; appendix 2). For instance, 71 percent of the former made less than $30,000 year, compared to 53 percent of the latter. This is even more striking considering that a larger proportion of immigrants in Illinois worked full-time. The education level among respondents in Illinois was decidedly low, with 66 percent of them having an education of middle school level or less (appendix, no. 15). Finally, an overwhelming majority of the respondents in our sample were Catholic (83 percent), a small number were Protestant (6 percent), a comparable proportion had another religion (7 percent), and a lower but not negligible number professed no religion (4 percent) (appendix, no. 17). Those numbers for the Pew sample were 79 percent, 4 percent, 4 percent, and 11 percent respectively.
As this comparison shows, national surveys of Latinos may miss the reality of towns of recent settlement such as the ones studied here. The Mexican immigrant population of Beardstown and Monmouth had been in the country for fewer years, was only comfortable responding to questions in Spanish, had a higher proportion of men, and was of a younger age than that of the national sample. This population also overwhelmingly identified itself as Latino and not as White, and was more likely to be married than the national sample. Finally, even though the average Mexican immigrant in Beardstown and Monmouth was more likely to be employed full-time than his counterpart in the national sample, he received a wages that was substantially lower. This latter finding indicates that even after accounting for cost-of-living differences, the poverty rates in these towns may be considerably higher than the average immigrants destination.
CHAPTER 2
Legal Incorporation
Immigration Status and Citizenship
I just want to be able to get a job, any job.
— Karen, interview with the author, September 15, 2013, Monmouth, Illinois
The rules stating under which conditions immigrants are admitted into a country significantly influence their lives. Having the necessary documents to immigrate to the United States affects a person's chances for having a decent quality of life and avoiding the constant fear of deportation. However, an estimated 11 million immigrants are undocumented (Pew Hispanic Center 2013). The rules for admission of foreign citizens impact the lives of immigrants in Beardstown and Monmouth. Their life stories reveal the hardships immigrants go through after coming to the United States.
Gabriela is twenty-two years old and lives in Monmouth. She came to the United States with her family when she was nine years old. The family's original plan was to come for four years to learn English; however, they ended up staying. Gabriela has five siblings, but one, a brother, was left behind in Mexico when the family moved to the United States. This brother is still in Mexico and Gabriela thinks he is around thirty-three years old, but she's not sure. When her mother and father divorced in 2010, her father returned to Mexico to take care of his flower business there.
Many immigrants to new destinations first settle in a traditional area of immigration (Leach and Bean 2008). Upon their arrival in the United States, Gabriela and her family first went to Sacramento, California. After two weeks, they moved to Monmouth because her mother had a cousin in this town who helped the family get settled. Gabriela's mother and father found jobs at Farmland, the local hog processing plant. Gabriela then started her schooling in 2000. Because the Latino population in Monmouth was already growing, the school had started English as a Second Language (ESL) classes. Therefore, Gabriela had a bilingual teacher who helped in her transition. In fact, most of the kids in her class spoke Spanish.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from At the Core and in the Margins by Julia Albarracín. Copyright © 2016 Julia Albarracín. Excerpted by permission of Michigan State University Press.
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