Sioux City Journal, IA
05-24-06
Storm Lakers debate how to reach out to poor Hispanic immigrants
By Bret Hayworth Journal staff writer
STORM LAKE , Iowa -- An Iowa State University-Extension research project on low-income immigrant Hispanic women living in Buena Vista County shows they live on the edge and are not aware of lifelines in the broader society to aid their families, whether it be in the form of government programs or social agencies.
ISU professors Christine Cook and Kim Greder described the project, in which 15 women at well under poverty level and with children under age 12 have extensively spoken over two years with researchers about their lives. The research focus in the 15-state project is on whether the low-income rural newcomers have adequate food and housing as they adapt to their new home.
Greder noted with such a small sampling, "it is not representative," but the project is worthy, she said, since the subjects will speak about their lives for three years, providing a wealth of information.
The 15 women living in Buena Vista county had generally lived there for three to eight years, had three children on average and worked outside the home. Those savvy enough to get public assistance fared better, Greder said, so they were
"less likely to be food-insecure and hungry."
She added, "It is just juggling, constant juggling, to get families to survive."
As a picture of "food insecurity" and housing inadequacy was laid out by the professors, the 30 people at Lakeside Presbyterian Church brainstormed how the
Storm Lake area communities could reach the low-income women. As Greder put it, "As a community, what are we going to do to help pave a path to society?"
Sara Huddleston, a Storm Lake City Council member and Latino who has lived in the U.S. for 17 years since leaving Yucatan, Mexico, was one of two Latinos at the meeting. She stated that if the Hispanics are to truly meld into the Buena
Vista County towns, it will take both Hispanics and whites moving toward each other.
Gesturing at the man sitting next to her, she said, "I may not like your pickles, you may not like my chili peppers," but the two races needed to embrace each other. Echoing what the professors said, Huddleston said Latinos moving to the
U.S. in great part lack recognizing why they need to enter the mainstream, on why it is important to become involved in government or place a value on school

education.
Richard Dirkx of Storm Lake said education is the key, that once Hispanics become well educated, they will meld into society like other newcomers before them. "You have to do it through education," Dirkx said, while acknowledging that it could take another generation to achieve assimilation. "We've got to give it time," he said.
Former teacher Donna Queen of Storm Lake said education certainly is important, but that once school is over, Hispanic kids who return to an impoverished home have a hard time moving forward, since "the whole mentality of poverty" entraps them.
Queen said Hispanic immigrants come to the U.S. for a better life -- in Buena
Vista County that means in large part working in the Tyson packing plant -- and work very hard to advance themselves.
While the women in the study were employed, Cook said, they described living in
"terrible conditions." While Cook said substandard housing in the U.S. is on the wane, Latino families "with the least resources" end up in costly housing that is
"the poorest of the poor in its condition." It is not uncommon for low-income rural immigrants to end up spending half their income on housing, which leaves less for food, health care and other necessities, she said.
And the low-income Hispanics live in crowded rentals, which hits on "a problem that almost no non-Latino families think about" in Iowa, Cook said -- overcrowding. Cook said the women interviewed who hailed from Mexico reported crowding several extended family members into the same house. She described two families "doubling up," like in the case of nine people in a twobedroom unit, so that "what one earns goes a little bit farther."
But Cook said the interviews showed that the Hispanic families aren't grouping together out of a Mexican societal ethic, but out of necessity. She said respondents spoke of not wanting to live together, that after living in the U.S., they wanted to achieve the ideal of living alone in a nice single-family home.
The illegal immigrant Hispanics live in some of the poorest conditions, Cook said.
One undocumented immigrant woman described a second-floor one-bedroom apartment with no working heat, no working plumbing and cockroaches paying
$450 a month in rent.
As a national debate on immigration policy rages, Frank Klahs of Storm Lake said he wondered how things might change for the undocumented immigrants working in the area "if (President) Bush would grant amnesty" for them. That,
Klahs said, could open access to government services, which the professors said the undocumented persons either don't know about or shun for fear of being

found out.
"If you are undocumented, food stamps are not a possibility," Greder said.
Bret Hayworth may be reached at (712) 293.4203 or brethayworth@siouxcityjournal.com