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Central American Immigrant Population

Portes and Rumbaut (1990) have noted that individuals from the Central American countries, especially from Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras are a major part of the contemporary immigration influx to the United States in general, and in particular to the city of Los Angeles, California. However, despite their large numbers, the authors report that Central American immigrants have been rather invisible within the system, not receiving the kinds of assistance that other earlier refugee groups have received.

The Central American immigrant population is one that suffers from a wide variety of social problems and represents the poorest population of all minority populations in California (Davis, 1993). The poverty rates for this group are twice as high as those for other minority groups such as blacks.

The rates of both medical symptoms and mental disorders are much higher than those of the general population (Williams & Berry, 1991) and the services provided to them are said to generally be inadequate. Moreover, because of their often illegal status, there is a reluctance on the part of many Central American immigrants to seek out and utilize provided services (Gong-Guy, Cravens & Patterson, 1991).

Within Central American immigrant groups, women are said to have an especially difficult time, often because they are single mothers responsible for both earning a living and raising young children. This means that in order to meet these responsibilities, Central American women often must quickly adapt to language and a host of other cultural differences. According to Sahagun (1990), the plight of many of these women often includes little to no income, no social security number, no proof of residence or birth certificate, and few public services. These circumstances force the women into a ghetto where they are at least among people who speak their own language; however, because of this ghettoization, they can fall ...

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Central American Immigrant Population. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 03:21, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1691375.html