Slide 1: Demographics

According to the United States Census Bureau, the Latinx population of NJ 12 more than doubles from 2007 to 2017 (going from 7.4% to 18.1%). In addition to this, another large demographic shift was seen in the number of foreign-born residents in the district. In 2007 the foreign-born pop. was 13.4%, which then increased to 44.3% in 2017, indicating a +30.9pp. When looking closer at the demographics, one notices an +24.pp increase in naturalized foreign-born residents in the district, indicating that those residents have and will be likely living within the district long-term. While these shifts where the largest increases, the largest decrease of a population in NJ 12 was that of the Asian population which went from 12.6% in 2007, to 5.6% in 2017. In addition to this, while there were many shifts in the demographics, the one group that did not face a similar shift was that of the Black population, experiencing only a +1.8pp increase in population.

Slide 2: Existing Research

When looking for existing research on this topic, one does not need to look far. There is an incredible archive of resources surrounding different demographic shifts and its effects within communities. The three topics the existing research fell into was that of the immigrant experience, the media coverage on immigration, and public opinion on immigration. In terms of immigrant experience, in Enos’ “Causal effect of intergroup contact on exclusionary attitudes,”he talks about the immigrant community at large and the correlation between the increase of immigrants in homogenous areas and how that leads to hostility and negative sentiments towards immigrants. In order to talk more about the immigrant experience, I used PFK’s paper called “The Integration Paradox: Coping Strategies among Immigrant Children in the Age of Mass Deportations,” which talks about how integration of immigrants in a community is easier if there is already a pre-existing large presence of immigrants within said community. However, this is not true when it comes to political representation of Asian immigrants, which was examined by Aptekar’s paper which is titled “Highly Skilled but Unwelcome in Politics: Asian Indians and Chinese in a New Jersey Suburb.” When looking into the research on media coverage on immigration and its effects, I used Abrajano and Sighn 2009 paper which discusses how national immigration coverage tends to typically be negative, especially surrounding Latinx immigration. Whereas, news coverage in Spanish tends to display pro-immigrant sentiments. The fact that the rapid growth of the Latinx population in an area correlates with an increase in negative sentiments towards immigrants and immigration is talked about in Abrajano & Hajnal (2015); Hopkins (2010); Newman (2018); Adida (2018).

Slide 3: Predictions

According to all of the research presented on the previous slide, one can assume that the increase of the Latinx community means that it is likely for there to be an increase of hostile sentiments to the immigrant and Latinx community. As a result of NJ12’s Latinx population increase, it is now on par with the national average of 18% Hispanic. This means that Latinx immigrants should in theory not have too much of a hard time integrating into communities within NJ 12; however, the same cannot be said for Asian immigrants. Regardless if Asian populations are prominent in an area, they most likely will not be represented in local elected office. In regard to media coverage on immigration, since there would likely be news coverage in both English and Spanish due to the demographics of the district, this would likely result in pro-immigrant sentiments in NJ 12. Public opinion on immigration would likely be leaning towards restrictionist sentiments and hostile attitudes would have a possibility of being found in NJ 12 do the rapid large increase of Hispanics in the area. This public opinion, however, is challenged by the levels of education found in the district, as well as the media coverage in the area which would suggest a more welcoming view point on immigrants and immigration.

Slide 4: Research Proposal

While there is a larger Latinx population in NJ 12 than Asian population, integration will be harder for the Latinx population. According to Patricia Fernandez-Kelly, the large population of immigrants in the area should allow for an easier transition into the community; however, this is also conflicted by the fact that there has been a rapic increase of the Latinx population in the area in conjunction with the negative rhetoric surrounding Latinos, which leads to negative sentiments and hostile treatment of them. So, while there is a pre-existing community for new Latinx immigrants, it doesn’t necessarily mean the transition and community they arrive to is a welcoming one. In order to determine whether this is true for NJ 12 or not, I would want to first conduct interviews. The interviews would be focused on members of the Latinx community, including those belonging to the immigrant community, those with family members whom are immigrants, as well as both natural born and naturalized citizens. The theme of their questioning would revolve around support from both non-Latinx/Latinx communities, educational and job aspirations, and perceived perception of how others see them. Another line of questioning would be directed towards the rest of the general population, specifically on their opinion of immigrants (nationally and locally) as well as the nuances between the different types of immigrants. Aside from interviewing, looking into a possible achievement gap in public schools, as well as socioeconomic disparities between demographics (specifically immigrant groups).