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Racial diversity in Northwest Arkansas


jooseyjoose

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This is a bit random, but I think it semi-adheres to the topic.

I remember when I was browsing websites a while back, I came upon the recently redesigned http://houstonnutt.com I have designed a few websites myself (my college app included a website) and I thought it was one of the most innovative websites I had ever seen. I checked to see if it was designed on home soil (which would be a topic in itself: Arkansas has a LOT of damn good web design firms in proportion to its population. just look at arkansas.com), and it was: http://www.occinc.net/ .

SO! While I was taking a browse at Ozark Computer Consultants website (which again I thought was pretty spiffy), based in Rogers, I saw that it had a link to its "Philippine Development Center." Obviously this piqued my interest, as I'm half Filipino. And the first lines completely surprised me: "Ozark Computer Consultants is a Filipino-American corporation." It continues on about IT and their branch in the Philippines.

I have only met a handful of filipinos from Arkansas in my life (a bunch more if you count the Filipino parties when Filipinos over a certain region all congregate). I almost felt the tenacity to write in and say: "I'm Filipino, living in Arkansas, and enjoy web design too!" Luckily I didn't let my youthful zeal get the best of me.

It was pretty surprising, to say the least.

Edit:// It appears the legacy building website http://www.thelegacybuilding.com/ was designed by them too.

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There was an interesting article about Bentonville's Diversity in today's paper.

2006 Census Numbers

510 Blacks 1.8%

1,135 Asians 4.0%

2,428 Hispanics 8.5% (ethnic group)

24,837 Whites 86.8%

Quite suprising, especially considering the 2000 Census Numbers

174 Blacks

473 Asians

1,198 Hispanics (ethnic group)

17,939 Whites

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There was an interesting article about Bentonville's Diversity in today's paper.

2006 Census Numbers

510 Blacks 1.8%

1,135 Asians 4.0%

2,428 Hispanics 8.5% (ethnic group)

24,837 Whites 86.8%

Quite suprising, especially considering the 2000 Census Numbers

174 Blacks

473 Asians

1,198 Hispanics (ethnic group)

17,939 Whites

Interesting figures. Wish they would put something like that in the paper for the other NWA cities.

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Interesting figures. Wish they would put something like that in the paper for the other NWA cities.

Mith, I thought the same thing.

The difference between Bentonville 1990's census and this year's, in terms of the minorities, was incredible for all minorities.

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I was scouring the internet for NWA Developments, and I came across a Californian Report that says up to 6,000 Marshalle have moved into the area in the past 10 years!!

What I can't understand is that U.S. Census Numbers only show 960 Pacific Islanders in the Metro within the year 2000. Does this mean that several thousand Marshallese have come to the area in the past 6 years?

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I was scouring the internet for NWA Developments, and I came across a Californian Report that says up to 6,000 Marshalle have moved into the area in the past 10 years!!

What I can't understand is that U.S. Census Numbers only show 960 Pacific Islanders in the Metro within the year 2000. Does this mean that several thousand Marshallese have come to the area in the past 6 years?

I don't see the attraction. What is drawing so many other races to NWA? Surely Wal-Mart alone can't have that big of an impact on racial diversity and why would so many people come here to get in line at the Tyson "Day Labor Office" in Springdale?

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I don't see the attraction. What is drawing so many other races to NWA? Surely Wal-Mart alone can't have that big of an impact on racial diversity and why would so many people come here to get in line at the Tyson "Day Labor Office" in Springdale?

I don't know why, except the article said they were lured by mainly blue collard jobs and Tyson. I've even heard reports that Northwest Arkansas has more Marshallese than any other metro in the nation.

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I was scouring the internet for NWA Developments, and I came across a Californian Report that says up to 6,000 Marshalle have moved into the area in the past 10 years!!

What I can't understand is that U.S. Census Numbers only show 960 Pacific Islanders in the Metro within the year 2000. Does this mean that several thousand Marshallese have come to the area in the past 6 years?

That is odd. I don't think there's been any big influx just in the past few years. Of course a lot of people always claim the Census Bureau doesn't count immigrants very accurately. But that did make me think though. Do they just mainly try to count just legalized residents? Would that make any difference in how they were counted?

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I don't see the attraction. What is drawing so many other races to NWA? Surely Wal-Mart alone can't have that big of an impact on racial diversity and why would so many people come here to get in line at the Tyson "Day Labor Office" in Springdale?

Sometimes what happens is that you just happen to have a few people, or sometimes even just one, start this. When the Marshallese started looking more to the US looking for jobs maybe some of the beginners went to other areas but had bad experiances there. The ones here had good experiances and liked the area so word gets back to the islands and more people start showing up. Then once you get a small community started even more show up because they might want to be a part of a Marshallese community, to have a little piece of home. I think a lot of this stems from the fact there just isn't a lot of jobs on the islands. They're pretty far out there and aside from a little tourism I don't think there's much of a job market.

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I don't know why, except the article said they were lured by mainly blue collard jobs and Tyson. I've even heard reports that Northwest Arkansas has more Marshallese than any other metro in the nation.

Yeah, I believe at one point in the past Los Angeles had quite a few compared to what Springdale had. But that was over a decade ago. I'm pretty sure Los Angeles still has the second largest Marshallese population outside the islands. I'm never really noticed a lot myself. Of course I don't live in Springdale. I also haven't really noticed any shops catering to just them like you see Hispanic shops. I wonder if anyone has considered a restaurant showing off some of the Marshallese and Polynesian cuisine, or even just some shops where you can find some of the foods you could find from over there.

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I was scouring the internet for NWA Developments, and I came across a Californian Report that says up to 6,000 Marshalle have moved into the area in the past 10 years!!

What I can't understand is that U.S. Census Numbers only show 960 Pacific Islanders in the Metro within the year 2000. Does this mean that several thousand Marshallese have come to the area in the past 6 years?

Matt,

Did you see the big special section one of the papers (the Morning News(?)...I'll be glad to credit your team, Diplodocus) had on the Marshallese a year or two ago?

I think indeed Springdale was mentioned as having the largest population of Marshallese either outside LA or maybe even outside the islands themselves. The article interviewed an M. I. native who now lives in Altus east of Fort Smith...this man was protrayed as almost singlehandedly being responsible for the wave of islanders who moved to NWA (he told them about ample opportunities in the Tyson/George/Cobb/etc. plants here).

BTW, Mith...moving from the Pacific to the African theatre, looks like Kinshasa (where most of this problem is going to be) is getting a bit "hot" right now for some folks. Still hope that "Kin la belle" can pull off a sisterhood with Bentonville some day after these electoral growing pains are over...

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I remember seeing that article. I'm pretty sure we have the biggest outside the islands themselves. I don't even think Los Angeles' Marshallese population can compare to ours. That reminds me I posted this under the Springdale topic, but apparently Springdale is active with it's current Sister City in China.

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That is odd. I don't think there's been any big influx just in the past few years. Of course a lot of people always claim the Census Bureau doesn't count immigrants very accurately. But that did make me think though. Do they just mainly try to count just legalized residents? Would that make any difference in how they were counted?

The Census Bureau is suppose to count every person in the city, regardless of immigration status. Most people however, don't answer the door out of fear of being deported, so numbers are sometimes skewed.

Yeah, I believe at one point in the past Los Angeles had quite a few compared to what Springdale had. But that was over a decade ago. I'm pretty sure Los Angeles still has the second largest Marshallese population outside the islands. I'm never really noticed a lot myself. Of course I don't live in Springdale. I also haven't really noticed any shops catering to just them like you see Hispanic shops. I wonder if anyone has considered a restaurant showing off some of the Marshallese and Polynesian cuisine, or even just some shops where you can find some of the foods you could find from over there.

I know some Credit Business's offer services in Marshallese. I haven't seen any Polynesian Restaurants, or Polynesian Cuisine in Wal-Mart's in the area. It would be nice to see some of these services in the area.

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Well that's what I always though. I'm not sure why the Marshallese count would be off then. They don't have to worry about being deported, they can come into the US without a visa.

Citizens of the Marshall Islands, through the Compact of Free Association with the United States, have visa-free entry into the US, and can reside and work here.

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According to the Northwest Arkansas Times today, there are over 8,300 asians now living in the four county NWA metro area, and that number itself represents a doubling of the population since year 2002. NWA now has the largest population of asians in the state. (Obviously from the article they must be including people from India as well.)

Also, last night on KHBS/KHOG 6:00 news they had a feature on a Marshall Islands festival. The news anchor reiterated that NWA now has the largest population of Marshallese in the world outside the islands themselves. (And apparently "Pacific islanders" may be a separate census category from "Asians".)

Wow.

(BTW, if the math (and my own calculations from it) is correct from that NWA article, the four county metro area now has just over 47,000 hispanics.)

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I wonder how much of the Asian population the Marshallese make up. I believe we've had the largest Marshallese population outside the islands for a while now. 5 to 10 years ago Los Angeles might have been able to give NWA a run for it's money.

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According to the Northwest Arkansas Times today, there are over 8,300 asians now living in the four county NWA metro area, and that number itself represents a doubling of the population since year 2002. NWA now has the largest population of asians in the state. (Obviously from the article they must be including people from India as well.)

Also, last night on KHBS/KHOG 6:00 news they had a feature on a Marshall Islands festival. The news anchor reiterated that NWA now has the largest population of Marshallese in the world outside the islands themselves. (And apparently "Pacific islanders" may be a separate census category from "Asians".)

Wow.

(BTW, if the math (and my own calculations from it) is correct from that NWA article, the four county metro area now has just over 47,000 hispanics.)

Wow, I'm shocked at that kind of growth. I always thought the Ft. Smith area had the most Asians in the state, good to see such diversity in the metro.

I knew we had the largest Marshallese Population outside of the islands themselves in the nation, I've been hearing that for four or five years. It's kind of odd that there isn't any Polynesian Influence in the metro at all: (Restaurants, Stores, etc.). May'be most try to integrate themselves into "American" Society as possible.

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It's kind of odd that there isn't any Polynesian Influence in the metro at all: (Restaurants, Stores, etc.). May'be most try to integrate themselves into "American" Society as possible.

Yeah that's what I been thinking too. Really seems odd.

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