Research & Outreach on Latinos and Changing Communities in Missouri

Cambio Center News - September, 2008

From the Center

• Cambio Center Board Meeting: We did have a very useful August 21st  Board meeting. More information about it will be shared with the fellows in the next few days.
• Cambio de Colores 2009 News:  As announced previously , the 2009 conference will be held May 18-20 at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. The Planning Committee will start meeting in October. The Planning Committee is always open to all levels of commitment by students, faculty, and staff.  The conference will be particularly relevant in 2009, to Missouri and the region.
• International Colloquium: The International Colloquium “Regional Migrants in the Americas. Cases of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and the United States”, a Cambio Center international Strategic Initiatives project led by Domingo Martínez, in cooperation with Universidad de Buenos Aires, Universidad de Chile, and the Centro de Estudios Migratorios Latinoamericanos (CEMLA), was held September 8-9, 2008, in Buenos Aires.  It was a very successful event with almost 30 presentations by researchers, service providers, organizers, and high-level officers from Argentina.  There is available information, for now only in Spanish, including the final program and the presentation abstracts.
• Elver Pardo, MU Extension Statewide Youth-Instructional Coordinator, who was previously based in St. Louis, is now at Columbia.  Elver has been very involved with the Cambio de Colores conference, and will be working on 4-H and youth development issues with Hispanics/Latinos. He is at 827 Clark Hall, phone 882-1931. ¡Bienvenido, Elver!
• Immigration & Communities Convening: Cambio Center fellows Domingo Martínez, Alejandra Gudiño, and Catherine Hsieh, along with Elver Pardo, will attend the “North Central Knowledge Network on Immigration and Communities” convening to be held in Des Moines, IA on October 6-7, 2008. The focus will be on creating a network around research and providing an opportunity for people to interact with others doing similar kinds of work, thus building a representative base of participation.

Missouri  Resources

• The Center for Health Policy at MU has launched a “virtual community” website at www.mohec.org for anyone in Missouri (or elsewhere) to engage in all things related to health disparities.
• Update in Census Data: Population Estimates for Missouri, April 1, 2000 and July 1, 2007, statewide and by county, showing that the Latino population grew over 50 percent in that 7-year period, compared with 5 percent growth for the overall population. (PDF file, 233 pp.)  Similar data for every state are also available.
• The Missouri Foundation for Health Annual Report is now distributed on line only.

From the Missouri Department of Economic Development newsletter:

• Missouri Hispanic Population Continues to Grow, MERIC.
  In 2007, more than 171,000 Hispanics called Missouri home, an increase of 66.5 percent since 2000. U.S. Census Bureau estimates for 2007 show the population of those of Hispanic origin accounted for 3.0 percent of Missouri's population. Nationally, the population of Hispanics was estimated to be 45.5 million, or 15 percent of the nation's population, making Hispanics the largest ethnic or race minority in the United States.
• U.S. Census Bureau's OnTheMap Version 3 Released
  OnTheMap Version 3 provides detailed maps showing where workers are employed and where they live, with companion reports on age, earnings, industry distribution, and local workforce indicators.

Other publications of interest

The Pew Hispanic Center has published several important reports in the last two months:

• Sharp Decline in Income for Non-Citizen Immigrant Households, 2006-2007 (October, 2008)
• Trends in Unauthorized Immigration: Undocumented Inflow Now Trails Legal Inflow  (October, 2008)
• 2008 National Survey of Latinos: Hispanics See Their Situation in U.S. Deteriorating; Oppose Key Immigration Enforcement Measures (September, 2008)
• One-in-Five and Growing Fast: A Profile of Hispanic Public School Students (August, 2008)
• Hispanics and Health Care in the United States: Access, Information and Knowledge (August, 2008)

Documents from other sources:

• The Anti-Immigrant Movement that Failed:  Positive Integration Policies by States Still Far Outweigh Punitive Policies Aimed at New Immigrants, A Report by the Progressive States Network (a good review of policy issues)