Numbers May Not Tip For GOP
By Edward Schumacher-Matos
WashPost
BOSTON -- Some Republicans are crowing over the 2010 census, but any red state gains they make will depend on two big ifs: The party undergoes a virtual religious conversion and supports immigrants, or it gerrymanders like mad.
Most news reports this week on the new population figures understated the size of the immigrant impact. If you add their American-born children, immigrants accounted for fully three-fourths of the nation's population growth over the last decade, and not the slightly less than half that was widely reported, based on counting the foreign-born only in the Census Bureau's parallel 2009 American Community Survey.
The impact is even higher in many of those Republican-leaning states in the West and the South that grew the most and are getting more congressional seats. In Texas, the biggest winner with four new seats, 85 percent of the population growth was minority, according to Kenneth Johnson, a demographer at the University of New Hampshire.
And as we know from polls and the last election, immigrants and their recent descendants aren't looking very kindly on the Republicans these days. The party, in its fierce intent to force out unauthorized immigrants, has demonized all nonwhite immigrant groups, creating deep resentments.
(More here.)
WashPost
BOSTON -- Some Republicans are crowing over the 2010 census, but any red state gains they make will depend on two big ifs: The party undergoes a virtual religious conversion and supports immigrants, or it gerrymanders like mad.
Most news reports this week on the new population figures understated the size of the immigrant impact. If you add their American-born children, immigrants accounted for fully three-fourths of the nation's population growth over the last decade, and not the slightly less than half that was widely reported, based on counting the foreign-born only in the Census Bureau's parallel 2009 American Community Survey.
The impact is even higher in many of those Republican-leaning states in the West and the South that grew the most and are getting more congressional seats. In Texas, the biggest winner with four new seats, 85 percent of the population growth was minority, according to Kenneth Johnson, a demographer at the University of New Hampshire.
And as we know from polls and the last election, immigrants and their recent descendants aren't looking very kindly on the Republicans these days. The party, in its fierce intent to force out unauthorized immigrants, has demonized all nonwhite immigrant groups, creating deep resentments.
(More here.)
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