CONTINUITY AND CHANGE
IN LATIN AMERICAN IMMIGRATION
Latin American immigration to California has been one of the foundations of the
State's economic prosperity. It has been driven primarily by employment
opportunity -- that is, the State's need to import particular kinds of labor,
combined with economic and political strife in the developing nations of Latin
America. While the attitudes of the federal and State governments toward
immigration have vacillated between open invitation (the Bracero Program) to
strict enforcement (the Immigration and Control Act of 1986), the economic and
political incentives which drive the flow of immigrants to California are more
powerful than programs or laws can contain.
Immigration, both legal and illegal, both temporary and permanent, to
California raises many challenges and obligations in the State.
Approximately one-half of California Latinos are foreign born. The policy
implications of these numbers are profound, and appear prominently in other
sections of this report. In this chapter, the nature of Latino immigration and
Latino immigrants is explored, and the policy implications of the Latino
immigration phenomenon are assessed.