Demographics

When you think of international ethnic hot spots, Belgium probably doesn’t jump to mind. Its 10 million inhabitants are relatively prosperous, and its two main ethnic groups, the Flemings and Walloons, with their different languages and cultures, aren’t blowing each other up with car bombs or hacking each other to bits with machetes. But that doesn’t mean Belgium is the model of inter-ethnic cooperation it’s cracked up to be.

Four years ago, outgoing Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt called his nation… more

People all over the planet are on the move, and whether anyone likes it or not, with each passing year Western nations will become more racially and ethnically diverse. But is that a good or a bad thing? According to most American politicians -- even Colorado’s anti-immigrant zealot Rep. Tom Tancredo -- diversity is a national boon. You’ve heard the rap: Diversity is our strength. We should celebrate it, blah, blah, blah. But are they all protesting too much?

I’ve always… more

Last week, I got a phone call from a television news producer who asked me what Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s extramarital affair revealed about the nature of Latino political leadership. I told her I’d agree to be interviewed on air only if we could explore what Bill Clinton’s dalliances said about white people or Jesse Jackson’s fling with an aide told us about black activists. Dumbfounded, she asked if I could refer her to someone else.

Remember two short years ago, when… more

At a time when American cities are changing so rapidly--both as centers of our society, as a launch pads for escape to suburbs and exurbs--I thought I'd consult with the man who may be the country's leading expert on urban life, Joel Kotkin, author and Irvine Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation. He’s the subject of this week’s 10 Questions. We talked about the problem with trendiness in cities, what it takes to make a well-managed city, and why… more

Abdel Salem is hunched over a small aerial map in his office, divining the future.

"This is going to be new," he says, gesturing toward a blank spot that’s slated to be the site of 1,700 residences, a park and a school. His finger glides across the paper. "This is going to be new too," he adds, pointing to another vacant part of the map that’s poised for a burst of commercial construction. He stabs at the paper again. "And this… more

No generation has lauded their revolutionary status more fervently than baby boomers. In documentaries, articles and books they are portrayed -- by themselves and others -- as agents of epochal change who, in the representative words of American University communications professor Leonard Steinhorn, have built "the inclusive, tolerant, free and equal America we have today."

Spoil sports may point out an older generation did the heavy lifting of surviving a depression, defeating the Nazis, overthrowing communism and launching the drive for… more

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was playing to a growing crowd of voters, in California and across the nation, when he used his inaugural address last month to urge people to "move past partisanship'' to a new home in the political center...It's a sentiment that appeals to the burgeoning number of voters who don't want to be identified with the Republican or Democratic parties and to the many people unwilling to be tied to their party's candidates or policies... more

You go, Loretta Sanchez. Just keep walking away from that Congressional Hispanic Caucus. No, not just because of the nasty name caucus chief Rep. Joe Baca allegedly called you. But because you’ll be undermining a political practice that will increasingly hurt Mexican American statewide candidates in the most politically powerful states in the nation.

From all accounts, Rep. Sanchez’s public feud with Baca is highly personal. (She says he called her a "whore.") Nonetheless, the moment provides an opportunity to ponder… more

MEXICO CITY – Mexicans living abroad sent home a record $23 billion last year, raising new questions about whether the government of President Felipe Calderón can afford to slow migration.

In just one year, the amount of money migrants wired their families jumped 15 percent, according to Mexico's central bank, overtaking tourism to become the nation's second-biggest source of foreign income after oil. “This is a river of gold that flows into Latin America and Mexico.… more

California is losing market share -- as a destination for immigrants. As the rest of the country experiences an explosion of immigration (especially of the illegal variety) that has the national percentage of foreign-born residents soaring, the immigration increase in the Golden State is in the rearview mirror. Since 1990, California has seen a decline in the number of new immigrant arrivals. In the 1990s alone, that number declined by almost 10%, and the decrease in Los Angeles County was… more