Study Seeks to Debunk Stereotypes of Latinos : Prop. 187: Study says vast majority of immigrants are hard-working, family-oriented and less inclined to accept public assistance than other low-income groups. Critics call it a deliberately narrow assessment.

The vast majority of Latino immigrants in Los Angeles County are legal residents who work hard, earn relatively little, tend to live in traditional family settings and are less likely than other low-income people to receive public assistance, according to a study scheduled for release today.

The report is the first detailed examination of 1990 census “microdata” samples focusing on the nearly 1.8 million Latino immigrants in the county, home to the nation’s densest concentration of Latin American immigrants, mostly Mexican-born but including Central Americans and others. Previous studies have tended to view Latinos as a whole, lumping together U.S. native and foreign-born populations.

The results are being released now, said David E. Hayes-Bautista, principal author and a UCLA-based sociologist, in an effort to counter what he called widespread misperceptions before the Nov. 8 election. On that day, Californians will vote on Proposition 187, the ballot initiative that seeks to bar illegal immigrants from receiving public education and other tax-supported benefits.

“Numbers are better than shouts,” said Hayes-Bautista, author of several pioneering studies on California’s Latino population, who acknowledged his personal opposition to Proposition 187.

Apprised of the new study’s results, supporters of the proposition questioned its findings, voicing suspicions about what they termed a deliberately narrow assessment of the illegal immigrant community. Los Angeles County is widely believed to have the nation’s largest concentration of illegal immigrants.

“They’re trying to make it seem as though illegal aliens are not a big deal,” said Harold W. Ezell, former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service Western states commissioner, who is an initiative co-author.

The study was sponsored by the Alta California Policy Research Center, a Los Angeles-based think tank specializing in Latino issues that is headed by Hayes-Bautista.

The authors call for a return to an earlier civic largess that, they argue, benefited a poor population that migrated from other states and helped create the prosperity of post-World War II California.

“Investing in a youthful, hard-working, forward-looking population was a wise decision in the 1940s and 1950s, and is still the wisest approach to a more prosperous future for all,” the report concludes.

But Ezell rejected any comparisons between today’s illegal immigrants and the migration of U.S. citizens to California after the war. “What is this about?” Ezell asked. “A full employment plan for illegal aliens?”

In line with other national studies of urban immigrants, the study depicts the Latino immigrant population as a kind of sociological paradox. Latino immigrants display some characteristics typical of the urban underclass--notably high poverty rates and low education levels--but also boast tightly knit families, a strong work ethic and low use of public services, all qualities not usually associated with the inner-city poor.

Census data for 1990 shows that 3.3 million Latinos lived in Los Angeles County, nearly 40% of the 8.8-million total population. Latinos, their ranks bolstered by immigration and high birth rates, are projected to represent a plurality by 2000, surpassing non-Latino whites.

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The report, extrapolating from census and INS data, estimates that fewer than 300,000 illegal immigrants from Latin America were residing in Los Angeles County in 1990--a ratio of less than 1 in 5 of all Latino immigrants.

“There’s some perception that if you’re a Latino, you must be an immigrant,” said Hayes-Bautista, who noted that only slightly more than half of Los Angeles County Latinos are foreign-born. “And there’s a suspicion that if you’re a Latino immigrant, you must be illegal.”

Alan C. Nelson, a former INS commissioner and co-author of Proposition 187, disputed the findings. Closer to 50% of Latino immigrants probably lack papers, Nelson said, which would mean that there were some 900,000 undocumented Latinos countywide--more than three times the new study’s projection.

Estimates based on studies by the INS and Los Angeles County put the county’s undocumented Latino population at one-fifth and one-quarter of all Latino immigrants, higher than the new study.

The authors of the study also assailed what they termed “a widely disseminated image” that Latino immigrants are “welfare abusers.” Only 16.9% of poor Latino adult immigrants received public assistance in 1990, the study noted, compared to 64.6% of poor blacks, 50.4% of poor U.S.-born Latinos, 48.8% of poor Asians and 41.7% of the comparable non-Latino white population.

That is so, the study found, despite the fact that Latino immigrants are more likely to be poorer than anyone else. The average Latino immigrant household income of $29,989 was much lower than those reported for other groups: $52,375 for non-Latino whites, $49,042 for Asians, $43,777 for U.S.-born Latinos, and $32,813 for black households.

One contributing factor to Latino immigrants’ poverty might be a lack of formal education--something the authors trace not to a lack of interest but instead to a paucity of advanced schooling in rural Latin America, most immigrants’ homeland.

The study found that 70.5% of immigrant Latino adults 25 and older had not completed high school, by far the largest percentage of any group in Los Angeles County. By contrast, only 14.4% of non-Latino white adults lacked high school degrees, 20.7% of Asians, 25.4% of blacks and 35.3% of U.S.-born Latinos.

Overall, the authors concluded, Latino immigrants’ poverty is more a function of low wages than unemployment. Latino immigrants are actually among the county’s hardest workers, the data shows. Almost 9 of 10 (86%) of immigrant Latino men 16 and older participate in the workplace, the researchers found, far more than any other group.

Among women, the study found that slightly under half (49.2%) of all Latina immigrants 16 and older were in the work force, compared to more than 50% of all other women. But the authors called the Latina employment ratio “extraordinary,” considering that they “are many more times likely to be married with children” than other women.

Overall, immigrant Latino households are more typically composed of the classic nuclear family--a couple with children--than any other group, the researchers found. Almost half (49.6%) of immigrant Latino households constitute such families, compared to 16.4% of blacks, 18.4 % of non-Latino whites, 30.7% of U.S.-born Latinos and 38.4% of Asians.

Immigrant Study A new study of recently released 1990 census data for Los Angeles County has found that:

* Fewer than 1 in 5 of Los Angeles County’s Latino immigrants were here illegally, compared to other estimates of 50% or more.

* Almost 9 in 10 Latino immigrant men participated in the work force.

* Latino immigrant households were more likely than other county residents to be living in poverty.

* Poor Latino immigrants were less likely than low-income U.S. natives and other poor immigrants to receive public assistance.

* More than 70% of immigrant Latinos 25 and older had not completed high school, by far the largest percentage in the county.

* Immigrant Latino households were more typically composed of the classic nuclear family--a couple with children--than any other population group in the county.

Source: Latino Immigrants in LA, A Portrait From the 1990 Census, Alta California Policy Research Center.