Chapter 14: The Southwest Border Area: Tricultural Development

There are not very many comparisons when relating Mobile with this region, however there has been a spike in immigration to this area recently.  Historically, Alabama has had very low levels of immigration.  Only 15,000 immigrants lived in state at the turn of the 20^th century, making up less than one percent of the total state population.  In 1990, the number of immigrants nearly doubled.  By 2000, approximately 90,000 immigrants were living in the state, increasing again to 137,000 by 2007, a 56% growth rate.  Alabama ranks fifth in the rate of immigrant growth among all states this decade.  These immigrants largely filled low-wage, non-union jobs. For Alabama, the 25-year period between 1980 and 2005 brought a wave of new immigrants who were part of a much larger surge of immigration that has now surpassed in numbers even the huge European migrations of the industrial era. A new wave of Hispanic immigration to the southern United States developed during the 1980s and after, primarily in response to new federal immigration legislation passed in 1986. This migration has resulted in the creation of substantial communities of Spanish-speaking people in Alabama. Most of these immigrants have met labor demands in farming, industry, construction, landscaping, and the service industry. Although fewer in number, Hispanic physicians, nurses, engineers, social workers, teachers, business people, and university professors are also among the recent migrants to Alabama. There is no indication that the new immigration pattern is slowing, and Hispanics are bringing economic and social changes to the South, as well as new forms of cultural expression. Immigrants have come primarily from Mexico, with others arriving from Guatemala, Honduras, and other Central and South American nations. Non-Hispanic Alabamians have reacted in varying ways to the new Hispanic migration and its concentration in small towns and urban neighborhoods. This Hispanic influx has complicated Alabama's historic racial divide between black and white. In the late 1990s, anti-immigration sentiment surfaced in a few north Alabama towns with rising Hispanic populations, and African American spokespersons in some areas have complained about job competition from Hispanic workers. Spanish language use has become controversial. Additionally, an unknown number of Hispanics are in the state illegally, perhaps as many as 40 to 50 percent of the total number, and this is a matter of concern to many Alabamians. These problems intensified between 2005 and 2007, as the U.S. Congress debated new immigration legislation, tougher border controls, and guest-worker programs for undocumented immigrants. Alabama politicians have pushed stronger immigration controls as well, helping to politicize the immigration issue. Meanwhile, big employers in poultry, construction, and agriculture have asserted their dependence on Hispanic workers. Rallies for and against immigration occurred throughout the state in 2006. Alabama has fewer than a dozen immigration or U.S. Border Patrol agents, and they concentrate their efforts on undocumented residents who are arrested by local law-enforcement agencies and charged with felonies.

Mobile is also like the Southwest Border area in that it also has a higher poverty rate.  The poverty rate in Mobile County, Alabama has increased by 1.3 percent from the rates reported in the Decennial Census, moving from 18.5 percent to 19.8 percent.

Three Eagle Scouts, the first produced by the Greater Alabama Council's Hispanic Outreach program

When compared to other counties (and parishes) throughout the United States, Mobile County reported a medium-low median household income of $39,441 (Adjusted to 2005 Dollars). This figure is 1.3 percent lower than the median income in State of Alabama of $39,938 and the median is 24.6 percent lower than the median in the US, which is $49,133. Contrasted against to other counties (or parishes) throughout the US, Mobile County, Alabama can be considered to have a relatively high rate of poverty among the people, accounting a rate of 18.5 percent of the population with family incomes below the 1999 poverty level.

Sources:

http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1096

http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2009/0517_alabama_singer.aspx

http://www.ecanned.com/AL/Mobile_County.shtml