European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 23, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Scag Region san Bernardino Kaleidoscope of cultures in Southern California source soul hem cat Tomia association of governments United press International t o some it s a juggernaut posing a threat tothe nation s integrity. To others it is culturally enriching current coursing through America s great melting pot. It is the latest . Immigration wave and nowhere is the Impact Felt More keenly than in Southern California. There 3,000 Miles from the Eastern shores on which the Steerage class passengers of an earlier Era landed a new Ellis Island has emerged and turned the Region into a bewildering Kaleidoscope of cultures. In 1846, the last mexican governor of California Jose Sepulveda complained that we find ourselves suddenly threatened by hordes of Yankee emigrants. Whose Progress we cannot  the Yankees came and conquered but Are now looking Over their own shoulders. Today according to the 1980 . Census los Angeles has More mexicans than any City except Mexico City and nearly half As Many salvadorans 350,000 As san Salvador. They Are not the Only people for whom America s still potent Promise of Opportunity in this Case drenched in Southern California Sunshine has proven irresistible. More koreans live in los Angeles and Orange counties than anywhere in the world outside of the korean capital of Seoul the . Census Bureau reports. This year one of every three freshman students entering the University of California at Irvine in Orange county were asian mostly vietnamese and laotian according to University officials. Between 1975 and 1980, 500,000 of the nearly 900,000 newcomers to Southern California were foreign born 80 percent of them asians and hispanics. Census figures also show that More than one third of America s 3.4 million asians reside in California. Between 1970 and 1980, the hispanic population in Southern California doubled to 2.8 million. Hispanics now make up nearly 25 percent of the total population of nearly 12.3 million people according to a 1984 report by the Southern California association of governments. During the same period the asian population More than tripled while the number of Whites excluding hispanics declined by 500,000. By the year 2000, the report predicted 42 percent of Southern California s residents will be caucasian 41 percent hispanic 9 percent asian and 8 percent Black. In los Angeles City schools where 85 different languages Are used caucasians accounted for 56.1 percent of All children enrolled 20 years ago. Today hispanics dominate with 53.7 percent caucasians make up 18.7 percent and Black schoolchildren held steady at 19.2 percent. The immigration influx has changed the face of the Region creating an exotic Patchwork of Barrios Korea towns Little Tokyo Little Taipei Little Saigon All taking Root in neighbourhoods once predominantly White or Black. Who makes up this wave mexicans dashing furtively across the porous Border hoping to escape a life of grinding poverty. Salvadorans fleeing a reign of terror. Chinese dominicans new York times photo More than a third of America s 3.4 million asians live in California. Jamaicans filipinos some documented some illegal. All Are beckoned by the Chance for a better life built on their own efforts just As the Irish germans poles russians and italians were at the turn of the Century. Their presence has redefined the los Angeles megalopolis altering its architecture its music its food its politics even its religious life. I just wish we could move miss Liberty to the los Angeles Harbor because we really Are the Ellis Island of the 1980s," said Harold Ezell Western regional commissioner of the . Immigration and naturalization service. Vacillating Between hospitality and paranoia Southern California has reacted with ambivalence. A poll commissioned by time Magazine last year showed that nearly 60 percent of those surveyed believe immigrants end up on welfare about 20 percent do while 58 percent said they add to the crime problem. Yet 67 percent of respondents said immigrants Are productive citizens once established. While Many residents relish the diversity Many others resent the intrusion and wonder How Long it will be before the third world engulfs the new world. While predictable from right Wing extremists the resentment Over immigration is by no Means confined to those who make xenophobia a part of their Creed. We can t take care of All the world s needy. We can t absorb them said Ezell the immigration official. If America does t want to do something to protect her Borders we will become a third world country with unemployment and uneducated  some politicians such As los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley believe immigrants make a positive economic contribution. But critics blame the newcomers for crowded classrooms rising gang violence Strain on government agencies and a general decline in the Quality of life. The situation has reached crisis proportions complains los Angeles county supervisor Pete Schabarum. He says illegal immigrants Are costing local government a whopping $370 million a year. After years of begging for congressional bailouts to offset the Cost of providing social services to the burgeoning numbers of immigrants los Angeles county officials Are running Short on patience. Studies show undocumented aliens an estimated 1.1 million in the county paid an estimated $2.8 billion in taxes last year but that the Federal government received 60 percent of those revenues the state 32 percent and los Angeles county Only 8 percent. Last fiscal year immigrants too poor for private Hospital care ran up a Bill of nearly $115 million in county run clinics. Nearly 84 percent of pregnant mothers who used the county Hospital were foreign born. Nonetheless some studies Challenge the notion that immigrants Are an economic Drain. A recent study by the Rand corporation found that mexican immigrants both Legal and illegal pay More in taxes than they Cost in government services with the exception of education. Based on the 1980 census the study said less than 5 percent of All mexican immigrants received any Cash Public assistance and it added that a vast majority of them paid payroll and social Security taxes. Overall mexican immigration has probably been an economic asset to the state in that it has stimulated employment growth and kept wages competitive the Rand study said. Bradley agrees saying there Are industries that would collapse tomorrow if All the immigrants left the garment Industry agriculture restaurants hotels the service  in a largely symbolic but highly controversial move the los Angeles City Council passed a Resolution making los Angeles a Sanctuary City providing moral support to those fleeing their homelands for political reason. The Resolution passed last fall was voted Down after drawing much criticism from politicians and other Community leaders who claimed the initiative symbolic or not would Only prompt a greater flow of illegal aliens Michael woo steered the controversial Sanctuary City Resolution through the la. City Council. Up photo into los Angeles. The Man who steered the Resolution through the Council was Michael woo who last year became los Angeles first chinese councilman. To woo whose Grandfather was a chinese laundry Man there is nothing new about the fear of immigrants. I think there is an undercurrent of racial tension Between a lot of the groups in my District. And in other parts of the City because there seems to be a natural tendency to blame the most recent arrivals for problems in the Community like crime unemployment Graffiti and other kinds of problems woo said. Street interviews Bear out woo s Contention that the a shopping Center in Monterey Park calif., would t be out of place in Taiwan. Up photo los Angeles area is witnessing an undercurrent of racial  there comes a time when you just have to say no More " said John Wrightson a North Hollywood Mechanic upset that his neighbourhood is now almost exclusively hispanic. They be practically taken Over. If you Don t speak Spanish you re out of  in Monterey Park near los Angeles a potentially volatile rift has developed Between longtime White and hispanic residents and Waves of chinese newcomers Many of them affluent and Well educated immigrants from Taiwan and Hong Kong. Fifteen years ago the chinese represented just 10 percent of Monterey Park s population. Today with the population swelled to 60,000, chinese comprise More than 40 percent and make up a largely affluent Community. The 1980 census showed that the mean family income for asians in Monterey Park was about $30,000, compared to $24,000 for Anglo residents. The wealth and education of Many asian immigrants account for some of the resentment often directed against them. A More fundamental reason is the fear of submersion a fear exacerbated in Monterey Park by the proliferation of chinese language signs. If we wanted to live in China we d live in China said Frank Arcuri who several months ago launched a ballot petition drive to make English the official language of Monterey Park. Like the chinese in Monterey Park vietnamese immigrants have made remarkable economic strides in Orange county adjoining los Angeles county. There Are now As Many As 800 vietnamese owned businesses in Orange county a 100 percent increase since 1984, said Loc Nguyen a spokesman for the Orange county chapter of the vietnamese chamber of Commerce in America. A dramatic illustration of the trend Loc Nguyen describes is found in the City of Santa Ana along Bolsa Avenue where there was nothing but Strawberry Fields and a few warehouses a decade ago. Now nearly every supermarket Bookstore pharmacy and Gas station is vietnamese owned. What accounts for such Success by a Community whose members came As refugees from a nation where they were on the losing Side of a bitter civil War they Are not Lazy people by trac do a Counselor at California state University at Fullerton said of his fellow vietnamese. Many work two or three jobs and Many work 14 hours a  such determination is reflected in Scholastic achievements. In Orange county s sprawling Garden Grove unified school District where vietnamese account for Only 10 percent of the Public schools 36,492 students 12 of the last 14 High school valedictorians were asian three of them vietnamese said District spokesman Alan Trudell. There s a resentment particularly among Blacks directed at the Success of the koreans said Ivan Light a sociology professor at Urcla. They think they accumulate Money in devious ways. There s also a resentment by working class caucasians of japanese Success that carries Over to other asian  Light said it is the hispanics who now weigh in at the Bottom of the socioeconomic scale As the Irish and later the italians did in the past. And there s a great Deal of impatience and frustration with the hispanics he said. But amid the obvious resentment there Are also countless efforts to help absorb new immigrants. There Are now regular roman Catholic services in seven different languages in Many los Angeles area churches. The los Angeles county court system provides interpreters for 80 languages from armenian to tongan. In Westminster calif., the police department offers special Driver training classes for motorists from Indochina. Santa Ana police who receive a Cash Bonus if they speak Spanish have a hispanic affairs officer who writes a Spanish language column for area hispanic newspapers explaining Laws and police procedures. 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