Challenges of the Ethnic Millennium
Continued, page 3 of 5
The new immigrants are diverse and educated, with an aggressive entrepreneurial spirit that is reshaping America. Many of them start businesses and create job for native-born Americans. Though they receive nearly $5 billion a year in welfare payments, their payment of $100 billion in taxes annually more than covers this amount.
According to Business Week, without these new immigrants America's 10 largest cities would have shrunk by 6.8 percent in the 1980s. Instead, with the influx of these immigrants they grew by 4.7 percent. They are rebuilding the inner-cities of America. In 1991, 37 percent of doctorates given in science were given to immigrants. Fifty-one percent of computer science doctorates went to foreign-born students.
Companies are just beginning to realize that the most profitable market today is the ethnic market. The current purchasing power of African-Americans, Asians, and Hispanics has been estimated at $500 billion.
In 1993, companies like Proctor & Gamble, Anheuser-Busch and Coca-Cola spent $734 million promoting their goods to the Hispanic market.
Estee Lauder has a successful line of All Skins cosmetics targeted to ethnic women.
Chemical Bank has installed Russian-langugage automated teller machines in areas like Brooklyn where most Russians are immigrating.
In California, Vons Supermarkets developed a separate chain to cater specifically to Hispanics.
Hospitals, like the Samaritan Hospital near Hollywood, now serve kimchi to their Korean patients and bean curd to Chinese patients.
Bandages now come in shades of brown as well as pink. Even Crayola has introduced a box of skin-tone crayons in shades far more diverse than the pink "flesh" shade of the 1950s.
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