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http:// --> Ashland, Oregon HOME Valley & State Sports Nation & World Opinion/Editorial Classifieds Business Columnists Obituaries Weather Archive Hot Topics Most Viewed Forum Photo Gallery Video Readers Polls Revels Etcetera Backpage O-Zone Special Sections Real Estate Guide Menu Guide Shakespeare Subscribe Contact Us Rate Card Place an Ad Online Games Movie Preview November 21, 2006 Census: High percentage of Oregon Latinos living in poverty PORTLAND — New U.S. Census data show that a quarter of the Latino families living in Oregon are now below the federal poverty line. That's 20 percent more than five years ago, according to the data, which was reviewed by The Oregonian. Even as they are slipping in income levels, Latinos now make up 10 percent of the population in Oregon. Demographers say that like other ethnic groups before them, Latinos are on their way up the traditional immigrant ladder. But Oregon's need for unskilled labor has continued to draw uneducated migrants, which makes the overall economic indicators for Latinos drop, said George C. Hough Jr., director of Portland State University's Population Research Center. "But if you wait awhile, the American-born children of the first wave of immigrants to this state are going to graduate,' " Hough said. Hough said the numbers also don't reflect the Latinos who have been in Oregon longer and improved their financial and educational status, because they are masked by the more numerous newcomers. And there are some hopeful signs in the 2005 data. Oregon's Latino marriage rate is high, and the proportion of the state's Latinos 25 and older without a high school diploma dropped from 2000 to 2005. But the data show that Oregon's relatively young Latino population lags behind the rest of the state and the Latino population nationwide in both education and economics. At $31,432, the median income in Oregon's Latino households dropped 2 percent from 2000 to 2005, while incomes rose in the rest of Oregon and among U.S. Latinos. The Census Bureau also estimates that about 40 percent of Oregon's Latinos were non-citizens in 2005. Oregon's Latino population also has higher poverty rates, fewer high school graduates, lower homeownership and a higher proportion of non-citizens than Latinos nationwide. At about 350,000 people, the Latino population grew by nearly 80,000 from 2000 to 2005, the Census Bureau estimates, accounting for more than half of Oregon's 4 percent population growth. The new data skipped some significant trends, said Richard Lycan, professor emeritus of geography and urban studies at Portland State University. For example, many older Mexican and Central American immigrants return to their home country after some time in the United States, he said. That may account in part for the low numbers of Latinos 65 and older. The data also provides fodder for those on both sides of the illegal immigration debate. For example, more than three-quarters of Oregon's Latinos older than 16 are in the labor force, the estimates indicate, versus two-thirds of the 16-plus population statewide. And they're more likely to work in manufacturing, agriculture and service jobs than the population as a whole. But about 45 percent of Latinos older than 5 spoke English less than "very well," the survey says, and 23 percent of Latino households received food stamps in 2005, nearly double the statewide average. The gap between households receiving cash public assistance was smaller: about 4 percent for Oregon's Latinos versus roughly 3 percent overall. And the average amount of assistance Latino families received — $2,125 — was $665 less than the statewide average. Leave a Comment: Advertisement: Advertisement: Paid Advertising Inkjet Printers Student Loans Water Filter Helzberg Diamonds Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Advertisement: Copyright © 2006 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers. All Rights Reserved.