Hispanics in Western Kansas (Wichita, Kansas City: houses, employment, transfer)

[Cowboys fan in Houston]

Hello all,

Please pardon my ignorance as I have not spent a whole lot of time in Kansas since 6 months ago. But some recent business has had me going to all parts of Kansas since then.

Being a demographics nerd and cultural geography being a hobby of mine, I try to observe different types of people in different locations. As such I couldnt help but notice that the cities in Western Kansas seem to be heavily concentrated with Hispanics. This is especially obvious in Liberal, Dodge City, and Garden City. Whereas in the rest of the state (sans some areas of Wichita and Kansas City) seems to be virtually empty of Hispanics.

In double checking my observations, Liberal, Dodge City, and Garden City are all pushing 60% Hispanic, so that seems right.

My question is this, what is it about Western Kansas that attracts so many Hispanic while the rest of the state (again sans some parts of Wichita and Kansas City) seem to have very few Hispanics?

[Gunluvver2]

Originally Posted by justme02

Hello all,

Please pardon my ignorance as I have not spent a whole lot of time in Kansas since 6 months ago. But some recent business has had me going to all parts of Kansas since then.

Being a demographics nerd and cultural geography being a hobby of mine, I try to observe different types of people in different locations. As such I couldnt help but notice that the cities in Western Kansas seem to be heavily concentrated with Hispanics. This is especially obvious in Liberal, Dodge City, and Garden City. Whereas in the rest of the state (sans some areas of Wichita and Kansas City) seems to be virtually empty of Hispanics.

In double checking my observations, Liberal, Dodge City, and Garden City are all pushing 60% Hispanic, so that seems right.

My question is this, what is it about Western Kansas that attracts so many Hispanic while the rest of the state (again sans some parts of Wichita and Kansas City) seem to have very few Hispanics?

It is packing houses that pay ILLEGALS about half of what legal citizens will work for. If you really want to solve the ILLEGAL immigrant problem start enforcing the law in packing houses hiring. Fine and jail time for EMPLOYERS knowingly hiring illegals would be a good start.

GL2

[601halfdozen0theother]

It is due to the stockyards and meat packing plants, which have awful, low paying jobs which right now mostly only Hispanics are willing to take.

I would like to take every 4th grader in America to tour the stockyards of Garden City, Kansas. Then we'd see how many Americans still would eat at McDonalds.

[Chelito23]

I think what you noted in Kansas happens in many Midwestern cities and towns. There are similar Hispanic communities surrounding meat packing plants in Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota. There are als pockets of this in Arkansas and Mississippi. Then you have carpet factories n Northern Georgia that draw Hispanics there as well in otherwise very non Hispanic regions. And of course you are aware of the affect of major cities and construction drawing Hispanics to urban areas around the country in general.

I too was also shocked when I saw the large amount of Hispanics in SW Kansas initially. I think the fact that there is a greater concentration of plants and thi part of the country being closer to Mexico and the Southewestern US draws more Hispanics, in addition to being an area with a relatively small population overall.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by Chelito23

I think what you noted in Kansas happens in many Midwestern cities and towns. There are similar Hispanic communities surrounding meat packing plants in Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota. There are als pockets of this in Arkansas and Mississippi. Then you have carpet factories n Northern Georgia that draw Hispanics there as well in otherwise very non Hispanic regions. And of course you are aware of the affect of major cities and construction drawing Hispanics to urban areas around the country in general.

I too was also shocked when I saw the large amount of Hispanics in SW Kansas initially. I think the fact that there is a greater concentration of plants and thi part of the country being closer to Mexico and the Southewestern US draws more Hispanics, in addition to being an area with a relatively small population overall.

Western Kansas is not the Midwest, though. It is clearly the West with a few hints of the Southwest.

[empires228]

Though the largest populations are found in the South West towns of Garden City, Dodge City, and Liberal there are significant populations in other towns such as Emporia (even after Tyson cut workers), Salina, Goodland, and Arkansas City. I have a Hispanic friend from Salina who said there the Hispanic population there is larger than what City Data records... She says that her parents were pressured into not counting themselves as "Hispanic" so that they don't show up in race demographics. I don’t know if this is true, but I’ve also heard that the conditions of living in the trailer parks in Salina are just as bad if not worse than the ones in SW Kansas. As people before me have said it all comes down to the jobs. Food Processing Companies (not just beef), Feed yards, and other companies that like cheap labor will bring in Immigrant populations to fill their work force as most Americans do not want to do these jobs. There are several communities in other states that are the same way like Lexington, Nebraska, Grand Island, Nebraska, Lamar Colorado, La Junta Colorado, Greeley Colorado, and Guymon, Oklahoma are all good examples of towns whose large employers rely on immigrant workers.

The thought of the packing plants closing can be scary for these communities and I have a few examples of what happens. One of the packing plants in SE Finney County burned down at the start if the decade and the town and school took a hard hit almost immediately. Even though the packing plant in Holcomb offered to take in some of the employees out of work when school started after the Christmas break several of the schools reported large amounts of missing students. A good chunk of them were later located in Canon City, Colorado, and Kearney/Grand Island, Nebraska.
Another example is the high unemployment in Lyons County after Tyson laid almost of the employees off. Many of the Somalian workers left (though a chuck went to the dog food plant), but according to someone I know whose has a relative is one of the 80 people Tyson kept the most of the Hispanics stayed behind and opted to look for other jobs or live off of welfare and unemployment rather than take the transfers to the Garden City and Lexington plants.

Many people find these towns “undesirable” because these jobs can bring in funny smells in addition to immigrants, but being from SW Kansas I can vogue that it isn’t as bad as people make it out to be. Except for the whole running out of water thing several of the larger towns in Western Kansas (Garden City, Dodge City, Liberal, Scott City, Ulysses, Hugaton, Sycacuse) are all expecting small amounts of growth in the next few years.

[hc130radio]

it's been like this for +25 years.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by empires228

Though the largest populations are found in the South West towns of Garden City, Dodge City, and Liberal there are significant populations in other towns such as Emporia (even after Tyson cut workers), Salina, Goodland, and Arkansas City. I have a Hispanic friend from Salina who said there the Hispanic population there is larger than what City Data records... She says that her parents were pressured into not counting themselves as "Hispanic" so that they don't show up in race demographics. I don’t know if this is true, but I’ve also heard that the conditions of living in the trailer parks in Salina are just as bad if not worse than the ones in SW Kansas. As people before me have said it all comes down to the jobs. Food Processing Companies (not just beef), Feed yards, and other companies that like cheap labor will bring in Immigrant populations to fill their work force as most Americans do not want to do these jobs. There are several communities in other states that are the same way like Lexington, Nebraska, Grand Island, Nebraska, Lamar Colorado, La Junta Colorado, Greeley Colorado, and Guymon, Oklahoma are all good examples of towns whose large employers rely on immigrant workers.

The thought of the packing plants closing can be scary for these communities and I have a few examples of what happens. One of the packing plants in SE Finney County burned down at the start if the decade and the town and school took a hard hit almost immediately. Even though the packing plant in Holcomb offered to take in some of the employees out of work when school started after the Christmas break several of the schools reported large amounts of missing students. A good chunk of them were later located in Canon City, Colorado, and Kearney/Grand Island, Nebraska.
Another example is the high unemployment in Lyons County after Tyson laid almost of the employees off. Many of the Somalian workers left (though a chuck went to the dog food plant), but according to someone I know whose has a relative is one of the 80 people Tyson kept the most of the Hispanics stayed behind and opted to look for other jobs or live off of welfare and unemployment rather than take the transfers to the Garden City and Lexington plants.

Many people find these towns “undesirable” because these jobs can bring in funny smells in addition to immigrants, but being from SW Kansas I can vogue that it isn’t as bad as people make it out to be. Except for the whole running out of water thing several of the larger towns in Western Kansas (Garden City, Dodge City, Liberal, Scott City, Ulysses, Hugaton, Sycacuse) are all expecting small amounts of growth in the next few years.

Tyson, Consolidated Beef, et al locate in these far flung towns to get the cheapest labor possible, the least amount of regulations, and the most isolation from the general populace. The feedlots and packing plants relocated from the big cities out to these places starting in the 1970s. Being that both KS and NE are right to work states the "companies" control everything.

[midwesterneratheart]

There has always been a Hispanic presence in Salina because of the railroad. I know of no trailer park in Salina I would term "deplorable" in the scheme of things. In being pressured to not state Hispanic, was this on an employment form which is not required or who supposedly pressured. There is a Tony's Pizza factory in Salina and no large meat packing place but many kinds of people with varying backgrounds work at Tony's. My 3rd cousin who has a college degree works on the line there. The statistics on City Data are from 2009 and probably based on the census although it doesn't really state, and many people do not complete the census.

[denverian]

Don't assume all the Hispanic people in SW Kansas are illegal. I know Hispanic people from Garden City whose families have been there for generations, and they're very legal citizens! There is also a large Asian community in GC (I think mostly Vietnamese) and I doubt they're illegally there.