Speaker: Town's ways unique

Carrboro policymakers are often viewed as fighters of trendsetting, but a major dynamic of the town’s population is almost a microcosm of the entire country.

Where the area is unique, UNC postdoctoral scholar Hannah Gill says, is in the way it supports its burgeoning Latino population.

A handful of people came to the Chapel Hill Institute for Cultural and Language Education on Sunday to hear Gill speak about local immigration patterns as part of a monthly speaker series.

Gill, a Rockefeller postdoctoral scholar with the University Center for International Studies, teaches a fieldwork class focused on the Latino community.

“These issues are important because we are all a part of this community,” she said.

North Carolina’s Latino population is the fastest growing in the country, increasing 394 percent between 1990 and 2000, according to U.S. Census data.

Latino immigrants flooding into to the state come for the growing economy, such as the expansion of Research Triangle Park, and to escape difficult conditions in their home countries, Gill said.

The movement has built momentum as families are joining members who came to work, she added.

Orange County’s generally receptive atmosphere and economic infrastructure make it attractive to a migrant population, Gill said.

About 4.5 percent of Orange County’s total population is Hispanic or Latino, census reports state.

Gill said her postdoctoral work is designed to collect immigrants’ stories and to create an oral history of the Triangle’s Latino community.

Although the term “Latino” represents a multitude of national and socioeconomic backgrounds, the group that most concerns lawmakers are undocumented immigrants, most of whom are poor, Gill said.

Finding ways to deal fairly with these newcomers is a enormous issue for local and national leaders.

Three major problems the Latino community faces are education, health care and fear of things that are foreign, Gill said. “People often don’t know what their rights are,” Gill said.

Orange County boasts several programs that reach out to new immigrants and Latinos.

Carrboro’s El Centro Latino, an advocacy group, and Pa’lante, a teen center, offer services like language classes, legal services and health care to Spanish speakers. Advocacy groups are essential to the Latino community, Gill said.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools offers a dual-language program from kindergarten through second grade at Carrboro Elementary School, and an increasing percentage of area police forces are able to converse in Spanish.

Laura Wenzel, executive director of Pa’lante, said the group took 19 children to Raleigh last week for Latino Day to ask legislators for support in extending services to Latinos in policy areas like driving privileges and higher education.

Gill said support programs must be centrally located and are invaluable to promoting a sense of community. “It’s really important to give a voice to people who can’t communicate in English well and to be a support for them.”

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.