Some people have misconceptions of Latinos' level of civic commitment, according to a new Brown report.
A team of researchers, including some Brown faculty members, recently released a report that presents counter-arguments to commonly held myths about the opinions and attitudes of the Latino community.
Under the leadership of Evelyn Hu-Dehart, director of Brown's Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, the project, entitled "Myths vs. Reality: Results From the New England Latino Survey," was an extension of the Latino National Survey. Conducted in 2005 and 2006 by a group of Latino political scientists, the survey, according to a University statement, was "a study of political and social attitudes of more than 8,600 Latino residents in the United States." For the New England-focused report released Oct. 30, the Latino communities in Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts were surveyed.
Using anonymous and bilingual telephone surveys to gather information about their target group, the team's report offers information to refute a few of the commonly held myths about Latinos. For example, the report uses interview results to debunk myths like "Latinos are not invested in the American Dream," "Latinos do not want to learn English and insist on Spanish only," "Latinos drain money from the U.S." and "Latinos are not politically active."
A $150,000 grant from the Rhode Island Foundation funded this research. The data collected from the 1,200 New England Latinos surveyed helped the team develop the conclusions presented in their report.
"This is a very unique thing for Brown," said Cynthia Garcia Coll, professor of education and a researcher on the project..
In addition to faculty like Garcia Coll , Hu-Dehart's team includes members from Providence College, Roger Williams University School of Law and the Rhode Island Latino Policy Institute. Garcia Coll said that this type of extensive collaboration is important as it offers many perspectives on the issue from several institutions that would not necessarily work together otherwise.
The beginning of the report acknowledges that while "increased media coverage of immigration policy and demographic change within the United States has heightened public attention to the Latino community as a whole," generalizations about the Latino community have formed as a result.
In a University press release, Hu-Dehart said "the information collected by this project will help overcome the current reliance on nationally based data that forces a standardization and homogenizing of Latino experiences, which is not reflective of reality," adding that "this data provides scholars, government leaders and policy-makers with a much-needed baseline of data and understanding of this segment of the population."
Sharing this sentiment, Garcia Coll said "we chose data that could speak to each myth."
While the report primarily focuses on the Rhode Island Latino community, results were also gathered from Latinos in Massachusetts and Connecticut as well.
Garcia Coll said that the Latino community is one "that really wants to create roots here." She noted that at the same time, however, Latinos do not want to sacrifice their cultural identity.
The complete report, which includes many graphs of survey results and conclusions drawn from the data, is available online.
