New Report About Latinos & Abuse

Earlier this week, the Southern Poverty Law Center released a report, "Under Siege: Life for Low-Income Latinos in the South," which documented the experiences of 500 Latino immigrants in the South. Some of the findings revealed that these Latinos are "cheated out of wages, are denied basic health protection and fall victim to racial profiling."

This report comes just weeks after the Pew Center released another report showing how Latinos have less faith in the police and criminal justice system here in the US.

Some of the more disturbing findings in the report from the Southern Poverty Law Center include the following:

• 41% surveyed said that they experienced wage theft by their employers
• 47% indicated that they know someone who has been treated unfairly by the police
• 77% of women surveyed indicated that they had been sexually harassed by bosses, many revealing that bosses used their immigration status as leverage for the abuse

 

The Southern Poverty Law Center also noted that these issues with abuse and discrimination aren't isolated to the South, but this area of the country was the focus of this report, as it has been an area where the Latino population has grown. The South is home to the nation's fastest growing Latino workforce in recent years.

Worth noting in commenting about this report, an advocate for the National Council of La Raza, Lisa Navarrete said, "This is not only a problem for Latinos but undermines all workers, undermines wages and conditions for all workers."

My thought is that this report will give Latino advocacy groups some ammunition in their fight for equality and better treatment in the South. With the deepening recession, the mistreatment of relative newcomers and ethnic minorities tends to worsen in the US. The South, in particular, has an ugly history of racism, which unfortunately is alive and well.