The most impressive part is that the US Latino GDP grew 21 percent faster than India's and 30 percent faster than China's.
Like millions of immigrants, Jaime Lucero arrived in the United States without a dollar in his pocket, but full of dreams.
It was the year 1975 when Lucero, born in 1957 in the Mexican state of Puebla, crossed the border without papers and decided to try his luck in New York. Without speaking English and with only a high school diploma, he got his first job as a dishwasher at a seafood restaurant in Queens. Six years later, thanks to his hard work and entrepreneurial vision, he achieved his first dream: buying a used pickup truck and thus starting his own goods delivery business.
In 1993, Lucero took another decisive step in his career as an entrepreneur by creating Golden and Silver Inc., one of the largest brand-name clothing importers and distributors in the United States. By 2002, the company already had a fleet of 25 trucks and 47 clients, among them Saks Fifth Avenue and JC Penney. Today, Lucero's companies employ thousands of people in various parts of the country.
Lucero has received multiple awards, both for his business leadership and his philanthropic work. Since 2014, the Institute of Mexican Studies at Lehman College has borne his name. The businessman is the founder and president of “Casa Puebla New York,” a non-profit organization that supports and promotes Mexican culture.
He is also the creator of Migrant Force, a multi-platform dedicated to promoting the economic and political power of Mexicans in the United States. “Education and civic participation are essential for our community to reach its full potential,” she asserts.
While Lucero's economic success is outstanding, her desire for self-improvement is not an isolated case but the common denominator of millions of Latino immigrants.
Persistence and hard work
For Dr. David Hayes-Bautista, director of CESLAC (Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture), thanks to their persistence and hard work, the economic performance of Latinos in the United States is impressive.
A recent study entitled “2021 State Latino GDP Report”, of which Hayes-Bautista is a co-author, reveals that the GDP of the Latino population in this country amounted in 2018 to 2.6 trillion dollars. This means that if Latinos were an independent nation, they would rank eighth globally, with a GDP higher than that of countries such as Brazil, Italy, or South Korea.
The most impressive part is that the US Latino GDP grew 21 percent faster than India's and 30 percent faster than China's.
These figures, according to Hayes-Bautista, contradict the deeply rooted stereotype among certain anti-immigrant sectors that Latinos come to the United States to commit crimes or live off public assistance. “We are neither lazy nor criminals, we come to work and contribute, and this study proves it,” he states.
Increase in consumption
Much of the extraordinary economic performance of Latinos is driven by consumption. Between 2010 and 2018, according to the study, real consumption in this group grew 135 percent faster than that of non-Latinos. Total consumption in 2018 among Latinos residing in the states of Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, and Texas was 1.36 trillion dollars. Nearly three-quarters of the country's Latinos live in these eight states.
Hayes-Bautista explains that the rapid growth in consumption is due, essentially, to accelerated advances in the growth of the Latino population and its strong participation in the labor market, especially in the education and health care sectors (16.0 percent), professional and business services (12.6 percent), and government (8.2 percent).
Regarding the growth of the Latino population, the report indicates that, between 2010 and 2018 in California, the non-Latino population grew by 3 percent, while Latinos increased by 13 percent. This growth, Hayes-Bautista clarifies, was not driven by migration but by a high fertility rate in this group.
The report also highlights that from 2010 to 2018, the educational attainment of Latinos grew at a rate 2.5 times faster than that of non-Latinos. It adds that, during that period, the labor force participation rate of California Latinos was an average of 4.6 percentage points higher than that of non-Latinos. In 2018, Latino labor force participation was overall 5.0 percentage points higher.
Latinos in general, and specifically in California, also have a higher life expectancy than non-Latino whites (83.6 years compared to 80.8). This is because, according to Hayes-Bautista, they take better care of their health. “In the case of the pandemic,” he clarifies, “Latinos were one of the groups most affected because they did not have the same access as others to the COVID-19 vaccines and because they could not stay confined at home since many are essential workers.”.
The most important conclusion of the study, Hayes-Bautista points out, is that Latinos are an enormous source of economic vitality for the United States due to their hard work, family values, and solid health profile.
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