From the Texas Tribune: Where is Texas’ growing population coming from?

For 2306: a look at the changing demographics in the state.

- Click here for the article.

The state gained 187,545 people from migration between July 2017 and July 2018 — even after accounting for people leaving the state, according to U.S. Census data.

In 2018, the majority of migrants to Texas — 104,976 people — came from other countries, with the rest arriving from other U.S. states.

That marked the second straight year that international migration into the state exceeded domestic migration, said Luke Rogers, chief of the population estimate branch for the U.S. Census Bureau.

Before 2017, domestic migration dominated the story of Texas growth: From 2005 to 2013, 4.8 million of the 5.9 million of people who moved to Texas came from other states, and since 2010 people from other states accounted for 29% of the state's population growth, compared to the 23% that came from international migration. That flipped in 2017, and between 2017 and 2018, international migration increased by 28%, while domestic migration grew by a more modest 22%.

“I think it varies from year to year,” Rogers said. “There are a lot of years going back to 2000 where net domestic migration is larger than the international migration, but there are also years the other way around where international migration is larger than than domestic migration.”

The recent uptick ended a decade-long decline in international migration — particularly from Latin America — that began with the 2008 recession, Potter said.

Meanwhile, Texas has seen an increase in migration from Asian countries, particularly China and India. Potter said around 45% of international migrants came from Asia in 2016.

“Over the 2000s, we saw a pretty significant opening of China and kind of increasing number of Indian students coming over to study,” Potter said. “And I think what happens frequently is once they finish studying, they are able to get sponsored by a company for a work visa … Once they get a green card, then they can start sponsoring their family to come over as well.”

Mentioned in the article:

- Texas Demographic Center.

From the Harvard Business Review: What So Many People Don’t Get About the U.S. Working Class

Further analysis of the 2016 election.

- Click here for the article.

For months, the only thing that’s surprised me about Donald Trump is my friends’ astonishment at his success. What’s driving it is the class culture gap.

One little-known element of that gap is that the white working class (WWC) resents professionals but admires the rich. Class migrants (white-collar professionals born to blue-collar families) report that “professional people were generally suspect” and that managers are college kids “who don’t know shit about how to do anything but are full of ideas about how I have to do my job,” said Alfred Lubrano in Limbo. Barbara Ehrenreich recalled in 1990 that her blue-collar dad “could not say the word doctor without the virtual prefix quack. Lawyers were shysters…and professors were without exception phonies.” Annette Lareau found tremendous resentment against teachers, who were perceived as condescending and unhelpful.

Michèle Lamont, in The Dignity of Working Men, also found resentment of professionals — but not of the rich. “[I] can’t knock anyone for succeeding,” a laborer told her. “There’s a lot of people out there who are wealthy and I’m sure they worked darned hard for every cent they have,” chimed in a receiving clerk. Why the difference? For one thing, most blue-collar workers have little direct contact with the rich outside of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. But professionals order them around every day. The dream is not to become upper-middle-class, with its different food, family, and friendship patterns; the dream is to live in your own class milieu, where you feel comfortable — just with more money. “The main thing is to be independent and give your own orders and not have to take them from anybody else,” a machine operator told Lamont. Owning one’s own business — that’s the goal. That’s another part of Trump’s appeal.

Hillary Clinton, by contrast, epitomizes the dorky arrogance and smugness of the professional elite. The dorkiness: the pantsuits. The arrogance: the email server. The smugness: the basket of deplorables. Worse, her mere presence rubs it in that even women from her class can treat working-class men with disrespect. Look at how she condescends to Trump as unfit to hold the office of the presidency and dismisses his supporters as racist, sexist, homophobic, or xenophobic.

Trump’s blunt talk taps into another blue-collar value: straight talk. “Directness is a working-class norm,” notes Lubrano. As one blue-collar guy told him, “If you have a problem with me, come talk to me. If you have a way you want something done, come talk to me. I don’t like people who play these two-faced games.” Straight talk is seen as requiring manly courage, not being “a total wuss and a wimp,” an electronics technician told Lamont. Of course Trump appeals. Clinton’s clunky admission that she talks one way in public and another in private? Further proof she’s a two-faced phony.

A first look at the demographics of the 115th Congress

Roll Call: Party Diversity Gap to Remain in 115th.

The Hill: 115th Congress will be most racially diverse in history.

From the Pew Research Center: Biggest share of whites in U.S. are Boomers, but for minority groups it’s Millennials or younger

A change is a gonna come:

- Click here for the article.

There were more 24-year-olds in the U.S. than people of any other age in 2015. But for white Americans, 55 was the most common age, according to Census Bureau data. 

In the histogram above, which shows the total number of individuals of each age last year, non-Hispanic whites tend to skew toward the older end of the spectrum (more to the right), while minority groups skew younger (more to the left).

From the Center for American Progress: States of Change The Demographic Evolution of the American Electorate, 1974–2060

A look at the demographic future of the country.

- Click here for the report.

And for a look at interactive maps showing how this future plays out nationally and in each state:

- Click here.

Note that Texas becomes majority Latino in 2044.

From the Washington Post: For the first time, there are more single American adults than married ones, and here’s where they live

This marks a significant demographic shift. We should consider what changes might result in the types of items that come to the public agenda as a result.

- Click here for the article.

Singles dominate most metropolitan areas:

From the Congressional Research Service: Membership of the 113 th Congress: A Profile

Here's a demographic breakdown of the members of the 113th Congress.

Here's a chunk of what you'll find in the document. It concerns what occupations members of Congress had prior to election:

• at least 100 congressional staffers (20 in the Senate, 80 in the House), as well as
8 congressional pages (4 in the House and 4 in the Senate);
• 5 Peace Corps volunteers, all in the House;
• 3 sheriffs and 1 deputy sheriff, 2 FBI agents (all in the House), and a firefighter
in the Senate;
• 2 physicists, 6 engineers, and 1 microbiologist (all in the House, with the
exception of 1 Senator who is an engineer);
• 5 radio talk show hosts (4 House, 1 Senate), 6 radio or television broadcasters (5
House, 1 Senate), 7 reporters or journalists (5 in the House, 2 in the Senate), and
a radio station manager and a public television producer (both in the House);
• 9 accountants in the House and 2 in the Senate;
• 5 software company executives, all in the House;
• 3 pilots, all in the House, and 1 astronaut, in the Senate;
• a screenwriter, a comedian, and a documentary film maker, all in the Senate, and
a professional football player, in the House;
• 29 farmers, ranchers, or cattle farm owners (25 House, 4 Senate);
• 2 almond orchard owners, both in the House, 1 cattle farm owner (a Senator), 1
vintner (a House Member), 1 fisherman (a House Member), and 1 fruit orchard
worker (a House Member);
• 7 social workers in the House and 2 in the Senate; and
• 9 current members of the military reserves (8 House, 1 Senate), and 6 current
members of the National Guard (all in the House)

From the Atlantic Cities: Americans Vastly Overestimate How Diverse the Country Really Is - Part One

And this impacts political decisions, erroneously. We tend to worry about things that aren't really happening.

In the last few years, the U.S. Census Bureau has released a series of high-profile projections narrowing in on a significant demographic milestone for the United States set to take place in the early 2040s. By then, America's population will for the first time become "majority-minority" (the Census Bureau has revised the target a few times between 2043 and 2041). At that moment, non-Hispanic whites will make up less than 50 percent of the U.S. population. And groups that we now consider "minorities" will collectively make up the largest share.

In effect, no individual group in America will constitute a "majority" any more.

That moment is still three decades away. But apparently most Americans think it's already nearly upon us. The Center for American Progress, PolicyLink and the Rockefeller Foundation released some interesting survey data today on perceptions about America's looming demographic change. One of the first questions asked of nearly 3,000 adults (with an over-sample of minorities): What percentage of the current population do you think are racial and ethnic minorities?

On average, people went with 49 percent. The reality is closer to 37 percent.

From the NYT: Whites Account for Under Half of Births in U.S.

White births accounted for less than half of all births over the past 12 months.

“This is an important tipping point,” said William H. Frey, the senior demographer at the Brookings Institution, describing the shift as a “transformation from a mostly white baby boomer culture to the more globalized multiethnic country that we are becoming.”


So what now? How will white folks deal with being just another minority?