islandpacket.com - The Island Packet Online

Search Everything in the Lowcountry and the Coastal Empire.

S.C. is home to many new immigrants

Study finds more people come straight from Mexico

Add Comment

Mexican immigrants moving to South Carolina have little experience with the United States, which means their learning curve about laws, schools and health care is slower.

A University of South Carolina study released Wednesday found Mexican immigrants are moving to South Carolina from southeastern Mexico, which does not have a long history of residents migrating to the United States.

"It's not like western Mexico where you have had generations coming to the United States, and people are sitting around on Sunday afternoon talking about what it's like to live in the United States," said Elaine Lacy, research director for the USC Consortium of Latino Immigration Studies.

At the same time, Hispanic immigration is fairly new to South Carolina, so there isn't an established Mexican community to nurture new residents, Lacy said.

"It takes a while for them to build up these networks.," she said.

In the study of 181 Mexican immigrants, the consortium found 73 percent moved directly from Mexico to South Carolina, Lacy said.

That means immigration in South Carolina will have different implications than in other states, including Georgia and North Carolina where Mexican immigrants are moving from other American cities, she said.

In the past five years, South Carolina has recorded one of the fastest-growing Hispanic populations in the country. The Census Bureau estimates about 140,000 Hispanics live in the state, but Lacy said the number is two or three times higher. Of those Hispanic immigrants, 63 percent are from Mexico.

In the study, 73 percent of those interviewed were undocumented.

Lacy's team spent two years interviewing and compiling information on Mexican immigrants in 14 S.C. counties.

The researchers want it to serve as a baseline report on the state's Mexican population.

"What we wanted to do was learn in their own words their experiences," Lacy said.

The full report will cover everything from jobs to church attendance to legal trouble.

Any research on South Carolina's newest residents is important as the state tries to get a handle on immigration, especially during the 2007 legislative session, said Edgar Medina of the S.C. Hispanic Leadership Council.

Social, economic and political policies need to be based on facts, Medina said.

Otherwise, "they're making decisions based on isolated instances," Medina said.

Micaela Montes said she understands the new immigrants' situation and hopes the rest of South Carolina does, too.

Montes moved to the United States from Hildago, Mexico, because she married a U.S. citizen. The couple moved to South Carolina after losing their jobs in New York as a result of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Montes chose Columbia because friends lived there and the transition was easy because she spoke English.

Those just arriving face a whole different set of issues, she said.

"You have no one to speak for you in the beginning."