Targeting immigrants

Today seems to be national immigrant day, according to all the news stories around that discuss the new Census ACS release. The Census Bureau released a new set of data as part of its ongoing
American Community Survey. A lot of stories focus on the growth of immigration however.

Here are the memes:

1. They're here and they're growing fast

2. They're in the suburbs

3. OK, they bring some economic benefits

Notice anything? Yes, it's "us" and "them" again, or even "us" and different thems (divide and conquer baby!). Here's a local paper's take:

Few people need official numbers to tell them a dramatic demographic shift is under way from Lilburn to Lawrenceville and Duluth to Dacula. Gwinnett is now 19 percent black, 16 percent Hispanic and 10 percent Asian.

Non-Hispanic whites, 90 percent of the population in 1990, accounted for 54 percent in 2005. Their raw numbers dropped for the second straight year, even as the county's overall population jumped by more than 25,000.

This is one reason why people are opposed to collecting data by race!

See Targeting Immigrants by Jonathan Xavier.