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The Hispanic population has experienced remarkable growth and almost doubled in less than thirty years as a result of migrant movements and high nativity rates. Hispanics are the nation’s largest minority group, numbering 47 million, comprising about 15.5 percent of the total U.S. population (U.S. Census Bureau 2007); Hispanics are the fastest growing minority group in the nation. According to projections from the Pew Hispanic Center, by 2050 they will reach 29 percent of the U.S. population.
About half of the foreign born population in the United States, almost 19 million people, is from a Latin American country (U.S. Census Bureau 2007). The economic integration of immigrants has become an urgent and critical issue to be addressed by host communities. In the Midwest, as in the rest of the United States, the arrival of large numbers of immigrants from Latin American countries presents an extraordinary challenge to public institutions and policy makers, and it has profound economic, social, cultural and political implications.
The complex and diverse challenges affecting the Hispanic community in this nation offer plenty of opportunities for researchers to examine these challenges and attempt to identify approaches to effectively address them. There is a long list of prestigious institutions already engaged in promoting scholarly discourse and dissemination of information concerning historical, contemporary, and emerging issues which impact Hispanic communities.
While The Ohio State University is in the process of establishing the Latino & Latin American Studies Forum for Enrichment and Research (L.A.S.E.R), its focus is expected to be on research between U.S. Latin@ and Latin American studies, including topics such as history, culture, economics, literature, and geography. Although this research is necessary, much needs to be done in the areas of social, historical, political and cultural research that is more narrowly focused on the needs of the growing Latino communities in the Midwest. Such research is needed in order to advance critical, insightful thinking on key issues affecting Latino Communities such as education, economic impact of Latino entrepreneurship, healthcare, political participation, immigration, labor market outcomes, and labor mobility to name some.
A community of scholars from Ohio State could help fill the void in information that exists among local, state and federal policymakers and political leaders regarding the complexities that characterize the U.S. Latino population — e.g. its heterogeneous composition, its bilingualism, and its diverse nativity, through objective, policy-relevant research, and its implications, for the betterment of the nation.
The Latino research initiative should also be a catalyst agent to promote Latino academic achievement, college participation and scholarship, to provide a forum for intellectual exchange and the dissemination of Latino research, and to promote the participation of undergraduate and graduate students in research on Latino issues.
As concerned citizens and researchers in academia, this community of scholars should seek to contribute to the local, state and national discourse of public policy and to promote effective long-term problem solving to attain the full civic participation, engagement and empowerment of the Hispanic community.
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