Latino immigrants revitalizing Detroit neighborhood (illegals, unemployment, suspect, Spanish)

[antialphabet]

New Latino wave helps revitalize Detroit - USATODAY.com

A new wave of Latino immigrants is following others who established communities in northern cities in the 1950s after getting jobs in the auto and other manufacturing industries. The attraction now is employment in restaurants, shops and other service-oriented businesses that cater primarily to residents in those communities but also draw non-Latinos.

"It's one of the few places in the city where you are seeing a lot of private investment," said Olga Savic, of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., the city's public/private development arm. "West Vernor Avenue was once primarily vacant. Now, it's 90 percent full."
The neighborhood is doing so well the mayor didn't include it in his plan to pump millions of dollars into distressed areas.
Blight hasn't been totally wiped out, but older Latinos and the new immigrants are helping with the transformation.

[antireconquista]

I admire the work that the legals are doing but any illegals who arrive there should still be deported.

[ArizonaBear]

Looking at Detroit's 21% unemployment rate: if I were an immigrant (especially one here illegally).............methinks that I could do better elsewhere

[High Springs Gator]

"I feel like I'm at home," she said. "I go to get a haircut, I speak Spanish. I go to mercado (market), I speak Spanish. My daughter goes to school and there are a lot of Latino kids. It's a great feeling."

How is this assimilation?

[Mori-vivi]

Originally Posted by High Springs Gator

How is this assimilation?

Why would you need assimilation, I remember a series the Miami herald made in the 1990's, about their most successful business people, most of them not using ebglish at all, the conclussion was that if they brought
prosperity and improvement to the area they very much had the right to communicate in the language they cared.

The same thing occurs today in many run down neigborhoods in the US that have been re-vitalized by hispanics.

We have a huge problem with homeless people most of them being whites, that's what we should re-direct our efforts.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

And so we have a natural disaster that brings in the National Guard. No one can communicate, ya that makes sense.

No wait, we'll assign a Spanish interpreter for every Guardsman.

[ArizonaBear]

Originally Posted by Mori-vivi

Why would you need assimilation, I remember a series the Miami herald made in the 1990's, about their most successful business people, most of them not using ebglish at all, the conclussion was that if they brought
prosperity and improvement to the area they very much had the right to communicate in the language they cared.

The same thing occurs today in many run down neigborhoods in the US that have been re-vitalized by hispanics.

We have a huge problem with homeless people most of them being whites, that's what we should re-direct our efforts.

Immigrants who are here legally are welcome---------the illegal ones need to be deported and have their assets seized.

[antialphabet]

Originally Posted by ArizonaBear

Looking at Detroit's 21% unemployment rate: if I were an immigrant (especially one here illegally).............methinks that I could do better elsewhere

Well, they are proving to be self-sustaining. Very much like Asian neighborhoods.

[antialphabet]

Originally Posted by High Springs Gator

How is this assimilation?

Sounds to me like they are going the route of many asian immigrants. Forming their own Koreatown/Chinatown/Little Tokyo/Little Saigon or something like the old Little Italy.

Does the concept really seem new to you?

I think it's a good thing, because in their own brand new neighborhood, they are forming jobs for themselves.

[andreabeth]

Originally Posted by Mori-vivi

Why would you need assimilation, I remember a series the Miami herald made in the 1990's, about their most successful business people, most of them not using ebglish at all, the conclussion was that if they brought
prosperity and improvement to the area they very much had the right to communicate in the language they cared.

The same thing occurs today in many run down neigborhoods in the US that have been re-vitalized by hispanics.

We have a huge problem with homeless people most of them being whites, that's what we should re-direct our efforts.

Assimilation is needed because that is what has so far held the US together. Frankly, I see this trend of viewing allegiance to one's ethnic group as more important than allegiance to America as potentially posing serious problems. When enough people decide that their 'group', whatever it may be, is more important than their role as a citizen of the US, we will splinter into a number of disagreeing factions similar to the what happened in the former Yugoslavia.

Hispanics who are probably here illegally have also destroyed many neighborhoods by clown houses, cars parked on lawns and unacceptable behavior. Since the invasion began in earnest, I suspect more neighborhoods have been trashed than have been rebuilt.