Latinos Face Another ‘Hard Decade,’ Study Says

Calling the 1980s “a hard decade for Hispanics” in the United States, a research group Wednesday predicted an increase in Latino poverty, unemployment and discrimination in the next 10 years.

The Population Reference Bureau, a nonprofit organization that analyzes population trends, said in a new report that the growing Latino population, burdened by inadequate education and poor English language skills, is suffering severely from a lack of good jobs, affordable housing and opportunities to achieve a better life style.

The prospects for significant improvements in the next few years do not seem great, but longer term changes can be made through a concerted effort by the Latino community, business leaders and the government, said Rafael Valdivieso, author of the report.

National Attention

“We need to focus national attention on the Hispanic community to solve these problems,” Valdivieso said at a news conference.

Valdivieso said the growing Latino community must focus on becoming more educated and politically involved.

While the report said that Latinos are “grossly under-represented politically,” Valdivieso said the next decade offers a chance for members of the group to become active in the political process.

Currently, he said, a third of the Latino population cannot vote because it does not have citizenship and many of those who are eligible to vote are not registered.

“There is an enormous potential for political involvement,” he said.

Sounding one optimistic note, he said that “the 1988 presidential campaign marks the first national election in which the Hispanic vote has been openly courted.”

Valdivieso, a vice president for the Hispanic Policy Development Project, called on business and industry to address the plight of Latinos by offering more job opportunities and paying more attention to the Latino market.

“Hispanics could fill a need by both business and government for literate, English-Spanish bilingual professionals” and they “make up a $130-billion market that is relatively untapped,” the report said.

Using this potential “will help to make the United States more competitive in the world,” Valdivieso said.

Although he said some Latino leaders believe the community has “been brought together by the lack of attention,” he added that “this has been a hard decade for Hispanics and the Reagan Administration has to take its share of the blame for that.”