A recent survey revealed a number of patterns in the Charlottesville Latino immigrant community. The survey, which involved University students and faculty, found, among other things, that the average Latino immigrant was less prepared for emergencies than the general population and that a majority of Latino immigrants in Charlottesville came to the United States for economic reasons.
Amy Yoder, a Graduate Arts & Sciences student and a lecturer in the department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, said the Charlottesville survey was part of a larger effort by the Greater Richmond Red Cross, which also surveyed the Latino communities in Fredericksburg, Petersburg and the Richmond area. The survey was done with the help of student volunteers, Yoder said, who reached out to members of the Latino immigrant community by going to places such as the local Mexican tienda, area soccer games and trailer parks with large Latino populations.
Because the study was done on behalf of the Red Cross, many of the questions asked centered on issues of emergency preparedness, especially for house fires, Yoder said.
“Many did not have a disaster plan ... There was a lot of confusion about what they needed to do,” Yoder said.
Tammie Smith, an intern for the Latino American Pilot Project at the Greater Richmond Red Cross, noted that, for example, 40 percent of the general population said they had a disaster preparedness plan, whereas only 27 percent of Latinos surveyed said they had one.
“I think it showed that ... Latino immigrants were less likely to be prepared,” Smith said, adding that language barriers and an overall lack of outreach may be to blame for this reported lack of preparedness.
In addition to checking for emergency preparedness, the Charlottesville survey went beyond the Red Cross requirements by asking several other questions, Yoder said. For example, the survey asked if participants had access to necessary healthcare services, whether they had a positive experience living in the United States during the past year and why they immigrated, Yoder said.
More than half of all survey respondents indicated that economic concerns were one of their reasons for moving to the United States, Yoder said. Many also retained ties to their country of origin, with 73 percent of non-American citizen respondents stating that they planned to return to their respective countries of origin at some point, Yoder said.
Smith noted that these findings were not surprising, and that they confirmed what many researchers and experts already suspected.
“Essentially they’re coming here for jobs ... to take care of their families,” Smith said.
Yoder added that the survey respondents tended to be more positive than expected when describing their experiences in the past year. She said, of all the respondents to the survey, only five said their experiences in the past year had been very difficult, whereas many said their experiences were OK and some said they were positive.
“Students commented on how optimistic and positive and resilient they were as a group because at the same time they were answering that their experience was OK, [even when] they were talking about job losses,” Yoder said, noting that, for example, many Latino immigrants work in the construction field, which has seen significant cutbacks during the previous year.
Despite the difficulties encountered by many immigrants, Yoder said the survey team never heard respondents say “I’m going back now.” Ultimately, many respondents answered yes to at least some degree that they were meeting the financial and family support goals they had set out to accomplish, she added.
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