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C Ch ha ap pt te er r 1 12 2 Determinants of Latino Migration to Allentown, PA MARK E. REISINGER INTRODUCTION The Latino population of Allentown and Lehigh County, Pennsylvania has increased dramatically over the past twenty years. Between 1980 and 2000, the Latino population has more than quadrupled from about 7,000 to 32,000. The vast majority of this increase is in people of Puerto Rican ancestry. According to the 2000 Census, 68 percent of the Latino population in Lehigh County identified themselves as Puerto Rican. Much of the increase in the Latino population has come from in-migration to the City of Allentown. This chapter presents information concerning the migration patterns of Latinos to Allentown and Lehigh County. Specifically, the research in this chapter is guided by five questions: 1) What are the origin locations for Latinos moving to Allentown ? 2) What was the reason for leaving the origin location? 3) What is drawing Latino migrants to Allentown ? 4) What are the demographic characteristics of the Latino migrants to Allentown? 5) Do any of the theories or approaches to understanding migration adequately explain Latino migration to Allentown? To answer the last two questions the research draws on anecdotal evidence from interviews as well as data acquired from survey work conducted in Allentown. In answering the questions, the research attempts to shed some light on the determinants of Latino migration to Allentown. Lehigh County is located in the Lehigh Valley of Eastern Pennsylvania (see Figure 12.1). The county population according to the 2000 Census is approximately 312,000 of which 31,881 or approximately 10.2 percent are of Latino ancestry. Allentown is the major city in the county. In 2000, Allentown had a population of 106,632, of which 26,058 or 24.4 percent were of Latino ancestry (U.S. Census, 2000). Allentown is also the major city in the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton MSA. Bethlehem and Easton are in Northampton County and both have experienced a significant increase in their Latino populations as well. EARLY SETTLEMENT OF ALLENTOWN AND LEHIGH COUNTY Judge William Allen, a loyalist who returned to England rather than support the Revolution, modeled Allentown on the same grid plan as Philadelphia. People from Germany dominated early European settlement of Lehigh County and Allentown. Germans were attracted from the Palatine region by the rich agricultural land in the Lehigh Valley. During the nineteenth century, reserves of anthracite coal were discovered in Lehigh County, and the Lehigh River and Lehigh Valley Canal provided a means to transport the coal to the growing industrial city of Philadelphia as well as to New York City. While building the Lehigh Canal, workers discovered a substance called hydraulic limestone. The first natural cement factory in the Lehigh Valley was started in 1851. The Allentown cement industry took off in the 1890s and by 1908 there were eleven cement mills within a six-mile radius employing 12,000 men producing 40 percent of the total U.S. cement production (Proctor and Matuszeski , 1978). 172 Mark E. Reisinger Figure 12.1. Location of Lehigh County, PA (Source: Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce) Adequate railroad connections and adequate coal power allowed Lehigh County to exploit another important resource—the reputation of its workforce for skill and reliability. Owners of silk mills in Paterson, New Jersey, exasperated by the unruly workforce there, opened branches in Allentown. The iron and steel industry was also attracted to Lehigh County because of the coal and iron deposits (Proctor and Matuszeski, 1978). TWENTIETH CENTURY ALLENTOWN AND LEHIGH COUNTY In 1906, Jack and Augustus Mack moved their bus and truck building business to Allentown. They too were attracted by the skilled and reliable labor force as well as the availability of metal and machined parts for their vehicles. Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, Lehigh County continued to attract manufacturing companies. The population of Lehigh County grew, and Allentown’s population increased from 70,000 to 109,000 between 1920 and 1970 (Proctor and Matuszeski, 1978). From the late 1960s until the present, the Lehigh County economy has undergone a significant restructuring . Employment in manufacturing has declined significantly, while employment in service type occupations has increased. Table 12.1 shows employment change by industry in Lehigh County from 1980 through 2000. During the period, Lehigh County gained 35,000 new jobs. However, the table shows that there was a decline of about 19,000 manufacturing jobs in that period. The most significant increases in...

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