Transcript The Hispanic Challenge” - City University of New York

“The Hispanic Challenge”
Samuel P. Huntington,
Foreign Policy, March/April
2004.
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Key questions
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What is the probable impact on this nation of a
very large number of immigrants from nations
with cultures that are markedly different and with
different kinds of governmental systems?
Should those immigrants be embraced as
potential producers of enhanced diversity and
excitement and wealth, or should they be
regarded as highly problematic?
If they are to be incorporated into the American
polity and economy, what public policies would
aid the process?
(“The Hispanic Challenge? What We Know about Latino
Immigration,” Strum, p. 1)
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How does Huntington understand
“culture” and US national identity?
 Consider
this claim:
“Contributions from immigrant
cultures modified and enriched the
Anglo-Protestant culture of the
founding settlers. The essentials of
that founding culture remained the
bedrock of US identity…”
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“The persistent flow of Hispanic immigrants
threatens to divide the US into two peoples,
two, cultures and two languages.”

Unlike past immigrant groups, Mexicans
and other Latinos have not assimilated
into mainstream US culture
– forming their own political and linguistic
enclaves—from LA to Miami
– rejecting the Anglo-Protestant values
that built the American dream
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US/American identity has changed
over time
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“America was created by 17th and 18th century settlers, who were
overwhelmingly white, British, Protestant.”
– Initially defined America in terms of race, ethnicity, culture, and
religion
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In 18th century, had to define America ideologically, to justify
independence from their home country, also white, British and
Protestant
By late 19th century, the ethnic component was broadened to
include Germans, Irish, and Scandinavians; religious identity was
redefined from Protestant to Christian
After WWII and assimilation of large numbers of southern and
eastern European immigrants, ethnicity virtually disappeared as a
defining component of national identity
After Civil Rights movement and Immigration and Nationality Act
of 1965, race receded as component of identity
“As a result, American identity is now defined in terms of culture
and creed”
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Threats to American national identity
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Doctrines of multiculturalism and diversity
Rise of group identities based on race, ethnicity
and gender over national identity
Impact of cultural diasporas
Expanding # of immigrants with dual nationalities
and dual loyalties
Growing salience of cosmopolitan identities for
intellectual, business and political elites
Forces of globalization
– create need for smaller and more meaningful “blood and
belief” identities
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What makes current Mexican/Latin
American immigration different
 Contiguity
 Scale
 Illegality
 Regional
Concentration
 Persistence
 Historical Presence
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But is Mexican immigration really so
different, Mexican culture so alien?
 Huntington
argues that Mexicans and
other Latinos, unlike other immigrant
groups, have not assimilated into
mainstream US culture
– instead forming their own political and
linguistic enclaves—from LA to Miami
– rejecting the Anglo-Protestant values
that built the American dream
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“Irreconcilable Differences”?
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Huntington: “As their numbers increase,
[Mexican Americans] become more
committed to their own ethnic identity and
culture. Sustained numerical expansion
promotes cultural consolidation and leads
Mexican Americans not to minimize but to
glory in the differences between their
culture and US culture.”
– Is this true? What’s his evidence?
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Robert Suro calls article “shoddy scholarship”
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Suro: “With the exception of the aberrational
period between 1924 and 1965, the US has
always been a multicultural society…in which
there has always been disenfranchised people
such as the slave population, Native Americans,
and various immigrant groups. What Huntington
has not taken into account is the diversity within
the Latino immigrant population, not only
between US-born and foreign-born but within
various nationality populations and across a
broad array of other variables as well.” (pp. 2627)
Suro notes change in how “the poor are
demonized”
– earlier, as “Welfare Queens” or “cheats” to people with
“too great a work ethic,” who’ll work for anything
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Other notes/criticisms
 Mexicans/Latinos
already ARE here,
the country HAS changed
 Nearly half of undocumented
population in US (45%) do not enter
illegally, but “overstay visas” (Pew
Hispanic Ctr, 2006)
 Continued immigration is necessary
to replace retiring workers, to keep
the workforce young
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