New Mexico as a Poor State - Research Paper Example

Lecturer: Why New Mexico Is Poor and Possible Solutions New Mexico is a poor considering the average capital assets withinthe total population and the states per capital income remained the same in the last four decades. The disturbing issue is the towering rate of poverty in the state, which makes it to be among the highest in the country. In 2002, 17% of New Mexico population was impoverished in comparison to the 12.1% of the nation and second only to Mississippi, which had a higher rate of poverty. Historically, New Mexico economy is underdeveloped and problematic because of the high rate of underemployment, heavy dependence on government spending and a weak manufacturing base. Nevertheless, recent efforts in economic development like the high population and employment growth and the increases in construction, health care, petroleum and social assistance are brightening the outlook (Garcia and Paul, 2006). New Mexico has a small manufacturing base which in 2003 was 4.7% of the non-agricultural population compared to the national average of 11.2%. There has been a reduction in the number of farms in the last few decades and a matching increase of the size of farms with most of the state’s agricultural efforts focusing on livestock instead of produce. In the past, mining was considered a main sector; however, it decreasingly plays a significant role in the state’s economy of only 1.8% in 2002 compared to 2.8% in 1988 and 5.5% in 1978. Because of the small employment opportunities in manufacturing and industrial sectors, the state historically has had a high rate of unemployment, even in non-recessionary times, the state experienced unemployment rates higher than the country’s average. For instance in 1987 unemployment was 8.9% compared to the national rate of 6.2%; moreover, in 2003, the state’s jobless rate was 6.4% compared to 6% of the national average (Garcia and Paul, 20069). Historically, New Mexico has been late in developing state wide public education system, which has led to its weak economic base and many problems that exist in the area. Despite the state having many PhDs proportionate to its population in the union, the state is ranked ninth in the country regarding the portion of its people having less than a ninth-grade education. These contrasting averages point the disparities in education in the state’s various population groups; For instance, the poor, Hispanics and Indians average less educational attainment than other groups in the state (Garcia and Paul, 2006). Therefore, of the estimated 1,819,046 total population of New Mexico, 120,000 are legally documented immigrants and 40,000 are undocumented; thus, the undocumented population is less than 7% of the total state’s population (Aparicio, Philip and Kalyani, 2004). Currently, over three quarters of immigrants admitted to New Mexico are from Mexico; even though, immigrants also come from other nations like the Asian nations. Although Hispanics make the largest portion of immigrant population in the state, over 90% are native born, which is higher than the country’s average of over64%. Many of the immigrants travel across the Mexico-New Mexico border without permit because of economic hardships and eventually end up staying in the state; thus, the reasons for immigrants staying are simply economic. For instance, an immigrant may decide to work for indefinite period in order to save some money and then go back to his or her country. Although undocumented immigrants enter New Mexico for economic opportunities, their rate of employment is low; thus, vast majority of the undocumented Hispanics and other immigrants live below poverty, which contribute to the poverty status of the state. Unemployment is main source of contemporary poverty; moreover, regional economic restructuring coincides with cultural diversity in America resulting in spatial inequalities in geographic areas (Aparicio, Philip and Kalyani, 2004; Esparza and Angela, 2008). This is reflected by the large differences in income and poverty across the states; besides, among the six states with the high average of poverty in a study carried out between 1997 and 1999, five of those were predominantly rural states including New Mexico. Accelerated inequality occurs in non-metro areas, but with less attention or policy concern since income and employment differences have grown in thriving rural population centers and other persistently poor and depressed regions and rural ghettos. Therefore, increase in spatial inequality is shown by the emergence of rural ghetto communities and persistent low income areas. The result of low unemployment rates in the rural state coincide with substantial economic hardship in small towns in the New Mexico countryside. The most cited reason for the high poverty rate in New Mexico is the low education levels among and lack of proficiency in English among the immigrant workers in the state. Moreover, the immigrants are often steered into certain economic sectors thus saturating the low-skill labor market which in turn decreases hourly wages (Brodey, 2010). The geographical conditions in New Mexico clearly affects the livelihood of the inhabitants with the mountains providing scenery and recreation activities and the plains plateaus supporting most of the state’s population. Land is available for farming in the state; however, farming requires good soil and growing season, which necessitates irrigation in many parts of the state since the state is dry. New Mexico is a poor state with little manufacturing; moreover, the rural areas are poorer since the economic opportunities are fewer. This point out the reason why most people in New Mexico are poor as compared to the average American with many coping in various ways with structural inequality. Residents of New Mexico live with what they have and come up with ways of making sense out of the environment. New Mexico is ethnically diverse with roughly 49% Anglo, 39% Hispanic, 2% African American, 9% Native American and 1% Asian; moreover, New Mexico has the highest number of kids living in impoverished conditions in all of the country, with the disparity in resources arising from ethnicity, geography and poverty. After the state was admitted into the union, it continued to proper but at a cost as it increasingly relied on copper mining and agriculture. The narrow economic base fuelled federal investment and the government’s demand for natural resources; however, the artificial supply-demand relation propped up the state’s economy temporarily and foretold of tough times in future. After the construction of railway, Arizona dominated the country’s domestic copper industry since much of the copper production and smelting was done in Arizona. The country’s involvement in the world wars I and II fuelled copper production; however, after the wars were over, military need for copper in the country declined significantly. Moreover, companies in the eastern states in the country became less dependent on local copper as they increasingly relied on foreign operations in Canada, Chile and Africa. By 1930s, foreign copper contributed about half of copper production and the operations gradually siphoned off New Mexico’s share in the market (Esparza and Angela, 2008). Early indications showed domestic copper would face foreign competition in future years, making it unwise to rely on the copper industry; nevertheless, states with high political influence like Arizona as well as New Mexico dismissed the need to diversify. The attitude persistent since westerners saw mining as an essential industry in to the region’s development since they believed mining would encourage economic diversification. This followed the rationale that primary industries like mining drive growth through stimulating investments in allied industries like construction of processing and fabricating plants. Even with the expansion of foreign operations, the federal government persuaded local investment early in 1950s by giving large subsidies to mining interests. The aim was to expand copper production quickly to secure adequate supply of metals and minerals crucial to national security. In return, companies were assured of market for their copper in the initial years of production with a price set by the government. Nevertheless, the program was stopped in 1957 as a result of increased foreign production; thus, the initial investment and the expectations of the defense-related market made many western mines including those in New Mexico unable to compete with the foreign markets. Therefore, this set in motion the decline of New Mexico mining industry, which was evident in the 1970s. Decreased production of copper led to fewer jobs and reduced incomes for New Mexico residents leaving them with agriculture as their alternative. Although, agriculture still remains essential to residents of New Mexico, the industry employs few workers; moreover, even with established irrigation projects, employment in the industry declined in the late 1950s and early 1960s (Aparicio, Philip and Kalyani, 2004). Since the late 1950s and early 1960s, there have been profound changes in economic base in New Mexico after the significant decline of employment in mining and agriculture which was replaced by service economy that bordered trade and government employment. Nevertheless, these industries never compensated the losses made in the high paying jobs particularly in mining; therefore, the low-paying jobs contributed to the expansion of poor, informal settlements in New Mexico. The retail and service jobs have never compensated for the loss of the high paying jobs; for instance, rural counties of New Mexico that share their border with Mexico had average per capita income of 77% in 1999 of the state’s average, which was even below the national average, down from 82% in 1989. Currently, wages in mining significantly outpace wages in business service and retail trade; even though, mining jobs in New Mexico have disappeared since they claim only a fraction of what they previously held (Esparza and Angela, 2008). In recent decades; even though, the quality of life suffered and in most cases continues to fall, the downward trend is linked to the changes in the employment base, which formerly was dominated by natural resource extraction and demand for unskilled laborers; however, the state’s economy has transformed into a specialized economy that requires educated workforce. Moreover, the worsening condition is as a result of immigration policies that aggravated the situation in the past. The population growth of immigrants in New Mexico State outpaced the states average; in addition, the immigrants’ median household incomes lag behind the state’s average income which indicates the economic hardships that the residents of New Mexico face. There are impediments to the improvement of the workforce in New Mexico which include lack of high school education and the lack of English proficiency; moreover, the huge percentage of people employed in farms and dependency ratio are other challenges facing residents of New Mexico. In 2005, 23% of New Mexico immigrants lived below the poverty line; in addition, English-proficiency is essential in securing better paying jobs and improving the economic situation (Esparza and Angela, 2008). English proficiency is essential in understanding the long-term economic and social features of the immigrant population. Speaking Spanish at home is a measure of social isolation since it approximates the level to which households are integrated with the broad Anglo society. Linguistic isolation is pronounced in New Mexico since in 1990, 45% of New Mexico immigrant population spoke Spanish compared to 47% in 2005 a value which is close to 18% more than the state’s overall (Esparza and Angela, 2008). Dependency ratio is high in New Mexico among the immigrant population which indicate that the working-age residents support great numbers of dependents than other working-age resides across the state, a situation made worse by low incomes and employment skills. Housing is an essential necessity since the poor housing among the immigrants drew attention of the state in late 1980s. Housing is essential since it offers the immigrant population a means for gaining stability and wealth. However, confronting the housing problem is difficult in immigrant population because of the absence of funding resources and the lack of local government development services like low-income or affordable housing commissions (Pimpare, 2008). The rise in linguistic isolation shows that immigrants in New Mexico may be increasing from foreign –born, nearly all of whom are Mexicans who do not have developed English language skills (Esparza and Angela, 2008). Therefore, this points to the implication of bilingual education which advances communal and economic integration. The percentage of laborers in farming is an indicator of education and skill levels in immigrant population since agricultural wages are the lowest in the nation and the tasks in agriculture are hazardous with the rates of injuries and poisoning high compared to other occupations; thus, individuals employed in farming do so because of necessity and if possible they would seek other employment. Detailed analysis of unincorporated immigrants indicate many obstacles to conquer as residents organize and mobilize community development efforts since circumstances have resulted in low incomes, few job skills and little advancement compared to state-wide populations in New Mexico. This has resulted in many immigrant residents occupying inexpensive housing, most of which are privately owned instead of rented or leased ones; besides, the housing is of poor quality built without plumbing and often overcrowded houses (Esparza and Angela, 2008). Much of the poverty and depravation of New Mexico is found in immigrant population settlements, which have diverse set of communities that have social, economic and housing characteristics that vary in accordance with their background. Even though, the communities differ considerably, poverty and depravation is their common denominator. New Mexico for most of its history has been a remote region that remained rural until the mid-1980s and in the last two decades the landscape of the state has destabilized and radically changed. New Mexico is anything but a vacant middle of borderlands with immigrant communities that have suffered the effects of trend and policies of 1980s like population growth, strain of social services because of economic crisis in Mexico and border policies of the US that pushed problems to previously rural areas (Garcia, 2011). Therefore, in order to help solve the problem of high poverty in New Mexico, the state has to adopt humanitarian agenda that seeks to be self-sustaining for it to grow and expand its influence in the communities. The social venture can be transferred across different communities since the model aid in solving poverty in a progressive way that helps meet the goals of improves the economic landscape of New Mexico. Investors not only provide capital, they also offer expertise both technical and business which are invaluable. As a social venture, the humanitarian mission begins from the perspective of the needs of the employees in this case the poor but with a subtle difference that it cannot operate like a charity because of the need to run a profitable business (Stoner and Charles, 2007). Poverty is a social reality in New Mexico that affects an isolated minority in a society characterized by mass prosperity. In New Mexico, poverty is part of the mainstream experience and it includes a substantial number of employed people with low incomes and high dependency ratio. To reduce the dependency ratio, there is need to multilingual education that enables students from the different communities in New Mexico to study and be proficient in English, which increases their chances of getting well-paying jobs in the state. This will help to conquer the economic traits of poverty which include constant effort for survival, collection of unskilled occupations, joblessness and underemployment, and the absence of savings and the constant lack of cash. Moreover, this will help overcome some of the social and psychological characteristics that include living in crowded quarters, lack of privacy and frequent to violence to settle quarrels (Mink and Alice, 2004). Finally, policymakers can minimize poverty by providing work and income support; for instance, affordable housing is a sure way of ensuring integration. In addition, reducing housing discrimination can go a long way in reducing poverty since historically housing discrimination tethered minority populations to poor neighborhoods or communities; thus, eliminating discrimination presumably reduces the concentration of poverty. The rural poor in New Mexico live in different physical and social worlds from the majority of the US middle-class. This is particularly true since they have many needs however they live in communities that lack resources to meet the needs; thus, the rural poor often end up mired in poverty for generations (Lichter and Domenico, 2008). Works Cited Aparicio, Ana, Philip Kretsedemas, and Kalyani Rai. Immigrant Communities, Welfare Reform, and the Poverty of Policy. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004. Print. Brodey, Lisette. Squalor, New Mexico. Central Avenue Publishing, 2010. Esparza, Adrian X, and Angela J. Donelson. Colonias in Arizona and New Mexico: Border Poverty and Community Development Solutions. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2008. Print. Garcia, F C, and Paul L. Hain. Governing New Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2006. Print. Garcia, Ginny. Mexican American and Immigrant Poverty in the United States. Dordrecht: Springer, 2011. Internet resource. Lichter, Daniel T., and Domenico Parisi. "Concentrated rural poverty and the geography of exclusion." Policy Brief. (2008). Web. 24 April 2013. Mink, Gwendolyn, and Alice O'Connor. Poverty in the United States: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, and Policy. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO, 2004. Print. Pimpare, Stephen. A People's History of Poverty in America. New York: New Press, 2008. Internet resource. Stoner, James A. F, and Charles Wankel. Innovative Approaches to Reducing Global Poverty. Charlotte, N.C: IAP/Information Age Pub, 2007. Print. Read More