Hispanic Enterprise - October/November 2007 - (Page 28)

Q &A JUST THE FACTS RAKESH KACHHNAR STRIVES TO PROVIDE THE FACTS AND FIGURES THAT GIVE SHAPE TO DISCUSSIONS ABOUT HISPANICS IN AMERICA. By Sandra McElwaine s the Associate Director of Research at the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington D.C., Rakesh Kochhnar focuses on trends, income and wealth of Hispanic workers and households. That gives him a unique perspective this increasingly important demographic. A graduate of the University of New Delhi, India and Brown University, Kochhnar has served as President of the Society of Government Economists and as an Economics Fellow of the Ford Foundation. His current job: To chronicle and advance an understanding of the growing Hispanic population in the United States. “We’re a non-partisan, non-advocacy, research mission,” Kochhnar explains. “The main thing we focus on are demographic trends, economic trends, schooling, attitudes and opinions.” Hispanic Enterprise: How does your work contribute to the dialogue on Hispanics? Is your job basically one of analysis? Rakesh Kochhnar: Yes, and in fact our mission is to quantify trends and attitudes and opinions to the extent possible and to stay away from advocacy or opinionating. The Pew Research Center, of which we are a 28 A part, calls itself the fact tank, so we are interested in contributing accurately the proper numbers to the national debate on issues such as what to do about undocumented migration. We would not say ‘do this’ or ‘do that’ or whether [something] is ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ We present data on how many are here, what they are doing, where they are living, and so on. HE: Let’s talk about remittances. RK: Remittances actually are a subject of keen interest among a few—the few being the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank and some researchers in the Washington area. The reason being the sheer magnitude and the growth of these numbers in the last 10 years or so. HE: These are Latin Americans sending money home? RK: Right. Right now the remittances to Mexico are in the neighborhood of $30 billion, with most of those coming form the U.S. So you’re talking vast sums of money which the government would naturally be interested in translating into savings and investment in some fashion, helping development at home. How can this be tapped, and before we tap it, what is it currently used for? Are people consuming it, is it conspicuous consumption, are they buying houses, are they just supporting a lifestyle? What are they doing? So that’s part of what we have done. HE: Are remittances to Mexico the largest in Latin America? Why? RK: Yes, because Mexicans [comprise] almost two-thirds of the Hispanic population of the U.S. On the other hand, if you look at it from another point of view, to which Latin American country are remittances most important in terms of what share of households in the country are receiving remittances? Salvador would be No. 1, where roughly a quarter of the household population is affected by remittances coming from the U.S. HE: What is the estimated Hispanic population of the United States, and how does it ﬁgure into this country’s ethnic makeup? RK: [There are] between 44 to 45 million total—native born, migrants, legal, illegal— everybody. Hispanics represent about 15 percent of the population, and blacks are 13 to 14 percent. The crossover [making Hispanics the largest minority group] happened in 2000 roughly, when Hispanics October/November 2007 HISPANIC ENTERPRISE

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Hispanic Enterprise - October/November 2007

Hispanic Enterprise - October/November 2007 Contents BIZBUZZ: Business Briefs Trendsetters BIZTECH: Personally Digital BizLife - Travel: The Mobile Meeting Motoring: Is What You Drive, Who You Are? Q&A - Fact Tank for the Hispanic Population Hispanic Commerce Cover Story: Tiles with Style Success & Motivation: Grammy Whammy Finance: Talking Code Event: Masterminds NCLR Report - Improving your Triple Bottom Line Politics & Government: Keep on Truckin' Managing: Avoiding an Identity Crisis Franchising: Beyond the Brand Finance & Investing - Talking Money Movers & Shakers Regional Report - Louisiana, Louisiana Chamber Focus - On the Island of Enchantment

Hispanic Enterprise - October/November 2007

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