VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, [4] ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 17:50:02 04/21/03 Mon
Author: Mack
Subject: We'll See

Wait until they get a load of "undocumented workers" with no insurance or driver's liscenses, 25 people to a house, overcrowded schools, overcrowded emergency rooms and a growing gang population.


Ana Cruz's Spanish-English dictionary was her Bible for the past two years in Scranton.

The 39-year-old El Salvador native would pull the pocket dictionary from her purse when she shopped for groceries, took public transportation, picked up pizza and ran other errands.

For the more complicated chores -- opening a checking account, paying bills in person, doctor visits -- she would recruit a friend to translate.

As she began to learn English, life in Scranton got easier.

She still carries the dictionary but does not refer to it as often. She has become the friend other Hispanics turn to as their translator.

"It's hard to be a Latino here," Ms. Cruz said. "Not a lot speak Spanish, so it's hard ... I try to help because not so many speak Spanish and English."

The language barrier is a growing problem facing other Hispanics in the region, particularly as their numbers soar.

While blacks are still the largest minority group in Scranton and Lackawanna County, Hispanics are the fastest growing:

In 2000, the total number of people whose only racial dentity is black was 2,793 in Lackawanna County and 2,304 in Scranton, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The total number of Hispanics was 2,710 in Lackawanna, including 1,850 in Scranton.

Since 1990, when the Hispanic population was 545 in Scranton, that population has tripled. In Lackawanna County, the Hispanic population has more than doubled since 1990 when it was 1,089, census figures show.

The number of blacks was 1,290 in Scranton and 1,572 in the county, meaning that group has grown about 78 percent since 1990.

Despite the growing Hispanic population, however, both Lackawanna County and Scranton remain predominantly white in their racial/ethnic makeup. In the county, 95.9 percent of the county's 213,295 residents are white; in Scranton, 92.3 percent of the 76,415 residents are, according to census figures.

Statewide, 84.1 percent of the 12,281,054 Pennsylvania residents are white.

"I came to Scranton because my cousin lives here," Ms. Cruz said. "A lot come because they have family here."

Some, such as Carmen Castillo, came to the region for work opportunities. Others were brought here by employment agencies.

"You can have a harder time if you don't speak English," said Ms. Castillo, a native of Puerto Rico. "In Puerto Rico, when you go to school, you learn some English. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, so maybe it's easier for us."

Around the region, the positive impacts of the influx are many.

At the Reformed Church in America on North Hyde Park Avenue in Scranton, Spanish services are a mix of band music, instruments from Latin America and emotional prayer.

Students in the Scranton School District share their heritage and culture in after-school programs and classroom projects. Under the Building Educational Success Together after-school program, Hispanic students recently worked with non-Hispanic students to make flags of their native lands.

There are new restaurants offering Mexican and Cuban cuisine, Spanish-American grocery stores, a sharing of different cultures.

But for many area human service and government organizations, a lack of employees fluent in both Spanish and English has become a growing problem.

"It's a real stumbling block," said Denise Zuvic, parenting programs manager at the Employment Opportunity and Training Center of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

EOTC is a nonprofit organization that provides employment and family services. The organization recently launched two family services programs for Hispanics because of the growing number of Latinos in the region.

One program, which was started three weeks ago, is a parents anonymous support group which is run in Spanish and also provides other services to Hispanics. The other, which began last July, is a parent-child house program in which EOTC staff visits the families and reads books in Spanish to their toddlers to help prepare them for preschool and learning English.

"Even if we're reading to them in Spanish, it will help them learn English," Ms. Zuvic said, adding that the parents are also taught English vocabulary words from the books and then teach those words to their children.

While Ms. Zuvic and another person on the EOTC staff are bilingual, others involved with the two programs are not.

"We have two who speak Spanish and just a little English," she said. "Basically, you can't find bilingual people."

Hiring from within the region's skyrocketing Hispanic population also poses problems because many do not speak fluent English, she said.

"A lot of places are using people who studied some Spanish in college," Ms. Zuvic said.

Bob Martucci, CareerLink supervisor, said job placement counselors at the Scranton CareerLink will often call in a translator from Catholic Social Services when Hispanics come to the center in search of employment.

"We have to bring in an interpreter because we do not have an interpreter here," he said. "In the past three years, we've definitely seen an influx of Hispanics."

Interpreters from Catholic Social Services are also called to assist the Scranton Housing Authority, police department, medical centers and other agencies, said Steve Nocilla, executive director. Catholic Social Services provides advocacy, educational and counseling services. The group also has programs for Hispanics.

The agency has seen the number of Hispanics requesting assistance double in the past year, Mr. Nocilla said. Currently, 1,785 Hispanics use the agency's services, he said.

The Lackawanna County Assistance Office in Scranton has seen the number of Hispanics receiving benefits double over the past two years to 1,200 people, said executive director Rich Kucharski. This increase has prompted the office to hire a third person who is bilingual in Spanish and English, he said.

The influx of Hispanics has also been seen in Scranton School District. Three years ago, the district had 215 students enrolled in English as a Second Language programs. This year, there are 345.

"Most are Hispanic/Latino," said Kathy Gulbin, the district's supervisor of planning and compliance. "A lot don't have English skills and it takes a number of years to learn ... English is often not the primary language at home so they're not getting the reinforcement at home."

Ms. Gulbin also sits on an organization with representatives from other agencies to address the growing needs of Hispanics in Scranton. The organization, called the Children's Programs Focus Group, is run by the University of Scranton, she said.

The group is currently developing a brochure of points of contact and other basic information for Spanish-speaking individuals, she said. The brochure will be translated into Spanish and then distributed through schools.

Many probably come to the region because it is too expensive to live in metropolitan areas, she said. Northeastern Pennsylvania has many types of jobs, such as in manufacturing, where those with limited English skills could get hired.

"My personal opinion is that this is not a problem," Ms. Gulbin said of the influx. "It's an opportunity. We're suffering from urban flight. These people are coming to our stores, they're sitting in our restaurants."

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-5
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.