EVALUATING THE LOCAL IMPACTS OF RECENT IMMIGRATION TO CALIFORNIA - REALISM VERSUS RACISM

Although past migration was often viewed with suspicion the implicit a ssumption was that new migrants would fill the jobs in the growing cit ies and contribute to the national wealth. There are those who still s ubscribe to the view that continuing migration will increase national wealth, indeed that new migrants are the work horses of prosperity. Th ere is another view however, which focuses on the local impacts of mig ration. This view suggests that the migrations of the late twentieth c entury are in a different context and create substantial burdens on lo cal communities and states. It may be too, that the mass migrations of the late twentieth century will lead to a new pattern of social exclu sion, polarization and a new ethnic under-class. The analysis of recen t migration in California documents the extent to which that migration is made up of very low skill, low income, and dependent groups and ha s the potential to create significant local dependency burdens.