Births, not immigration, driving Hispanic growth

An interesting new study from the Pew Research Center shows the need to adjust the thinking on minority populations, especially Hispanics.

Quite often, when the topic of reaching out to the Hispanic audience we commonly hear the word “immigrant” being thrown around, but that’s becoming an increasingly inaccurate way to describe that cohort.

For the first time in more than 20 years, less than half of Hispanic workers were immigrants, according to Pew. Since the recession ended, Hispanics have gained 2.8 million jobs, but only 453,000 of those went to immigrants.

Although some of this is due to the recession slowing immigration, it is also a reflection of the changing population and is likely to continue, researchers wrote.

Why is this important to us? Because these U.S-born, second-, third- or fourth-generation Hispanics are much more established than the immigrant population. That means they are more likely have a better job, to own a home and, yes, have the financial wherewithal to buy a boat.

The charts below better demonstrate some of these trends.