November 30, 2006 , New York City — Over the past 15 years, North Carolina has had the highest rate of increase of Latino immigration of any Southern state – accounting for more that 27 percent of the state’s population growth. According to a new report from The Century Foundation, the response of the State of North Carolina to Latino immigration has been a mixed one, but has turned more negative as time has passed and the number of immigrants has increased.

North Carolina is one of five state case studies featured in Immigration’s New Frontiers: Experiences from the Emerging Gateway States , which looks at how, in the absence of federal immigration policy, “new destination” states, have tried to address a range of challenges posed by both documented and undocumented immigrants, many of whom have limited English and low incomes. The state studies show how communities, such as North Carolina have dealt with the challenges created by the new immigrants in policy and service areas such as law enforcement, health care, housing, education, and workers rights.

The North Carolina state study was written by Paula D. McClain, professor of political science, and public policy at Duke University . She describes the migration to North Carolina as part of a massive settlement of Latinos into the Deep South , which has little experience with large numbers of immigrants in general, and no experience with immigrant populations of Latin American origin. According to her report, Southern states began actively recruiting workers from Mexico and Central America to fill a need for large numbers of unskilled and inexpensive laborers to work in industries such as poultry, meat processing, carpet manufacturing, oil refining, agriculture, and forestry. However, these states are having difficulty finding balanced approaches to serving the needs of the immigrant population while responding to the desires of long time residents as they have become more resistant to the growing immigrant population.

She describes how early on, North Carolina ’s government responded to the immigrants in ways that assisted Latinos in navigating the state bureaucracy and helping them access health care and other state programs. Although the state legislature was slow to fund needed services. More recently, laws have been passed, or bills introduced, to restrict access to services and to more aggressively pursue undocumented immigrants. In 2004, for example, the Department of Motor

Vehicles reduced the number and types of identification that could be presented to obtain a drivers license and this year the legislature took action to require anyone applying for or renewing a driver’s license to show proof of a valid Social Security number or a valid visa. At the same time, at least one North Carolina county has chosen to become proactive in rounding up undocumented immigrants. In Mecklenburg County , a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official trained ten county deputies to screen individuals for immigration violations and gave them the authority to detain those without proper documentation and turn them over to the federal government for deportation. Even more restrictive bills are pending. One would require proof of citizenship to vote and proof of legal resident status or citizenship to receive “certain public benefits and would require state agencies to cooperated with local governments and the Department of Homeland Security to develop a system for verifying the lawful presence in the country; another bill would create a resolution “urging Congress to enact legislation to designate English as the official language of the United Sates.

McClain concludes that the state legislative changes may be driven, in part, by the anti immigration posture of some of the North Carolina congressional delegation. However, she notes that changes are also being made as a response to North Carolina citizens who have expressed more concerns about Latino immigrants, particularly regarding their costs to the health and education systems. McClain also sees drunk driving and gang activity as emerging issues related to the state’s Latino immigrant population.

According to the report, Latino immigration into North Carolina will continue well into the foreseeable future, suggesting that the debate over Latino immigration is likely to continue to be an issue in North Carolina politics. McClain stresses that North Carolina cannot continue its piecemeal approach for addressing issues related to Latino immigrants.

Immigration’s New Frontiers: Experiences from the Emerging Gateway States also examines experiences with immigration in four other states: Georgia , Iowa , Minnesota , and Nebraska . Taken together, these state papers make clear that many of the problems experienced by the states are due to a lack of coherent public policy, experience with integrating immigrants, and/or the resources to address the distinct challenges immigration introduces. “States and localities are ill equipped to tackle the challenges or even take advantage of the opportunities that immigration presents,” say Century Foundation co-editors Greg Anrig, vice president for program and Tova Wang, Democracy Fellow. “If there is to be a workable solution, the federal government will need to come forward with effective and fair policies and the resources to implement them.”

Immigration's New Frontiers: Experiences from the Emerging Gateway States

Edited by Greg Anrig, Jr., and Tova Andrea Wang

A Century Foundation Report

240 pages, $15.95 paper ISBN 0-87078-506-0

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