A&M sociologist sees shift in immigration trends He says Chinese may replace Mexicans in unskilled labor

Hmmm, this is a toughie. Chinese immigrants replacing Hispanic immigrants for American jobs? I will have to think some more on this issue. -----lee

Contains the usual false assertions that Americans won't do the jobs they did for decades when wages were decent.  Also, suspiciously low number of immigrants given.-----rng      

By JEANNIE KEVER

Updated 07:51 p.m., Saturday, November 19, 2011

     Dudley Poston, a sociologist at Texas A&M University, began to study China in the early 1980s, when that country started sending larger numbers of students to the United States. Helping a handful of Chinese students learn the demographics of their own country was contagious; most of his scholarly work now involves the Asian nation. Poston says his work, coupled with research from Princeton University's Mexican Migration Project showing a dramatic drop in illegal immigration from Mexico, suggests Chinese immigrants may replace those from south of the border as the go-to workers for landscaping, construction, agriculture and other unskilled labor here. Poston discussed the theory with Chronicle reporter Jeannie Kever. The conversation has been edited and condensed.

     Q: Why might Chinese immigrants overtake Mexican immigrants in low-wage, unskilled jobs here?

     A: Mexico for decades has supplied our country with low-wage laborers, legal and illegal, but that's grinding to a halt. Increased border surveillance and high unemployment are keeping people away from the United States. Other things are holding people in Mexico. They have a lower unemployment rate than we do. And what a lot of people don't realize is that their fertility is dropping to 2.2 children per woman. It used to be six or seven children a few decades ago. There are fewer young people available (to take jobs), and fewer mouths to feed. There are about 4 million or 5 million undocumented Mexican immigrants in our country (and about 11 million illegal immigrants total). They pick up garbage, work construction, agriculture - all the things in big cities that the local people don't want to do. Who's going to do that work? There's already a network of migration from China to our country; probably 200,000 to 300,000 undocumented Chinese are here. They're mainly on the East Coast, in Houston and Los Angeles. They're mainly doing restaurant work. Undocumented Mexicans are much more visible.

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