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April 16, 2001

Hispanic numbers doubling

Population pattern used to be more migratory, seasonal
By BILL ECHLIN
Record-Eagle staff writer
       TRAVERSE CITY - Miguel Osorio could have told the U.S. Census Bureau ahead of time that its head-counters would find a lot more Hispanics in Northwest Lower Michigan than a decade ago.
      He's been selling Mexican specialty foods wholesale to area grocery stores and his customers kept asking for more items. That led him to open his Osorio El Mexicano grocery in a small Traverse City-area shopping center last summer. The business is doing well and Osorio is looking for larger quarters.
      Hispanic populations in northwest Lower Michigan more than doubled from 1990 to 2000. Though the numbers are still small, the trend is expected to continue. The total population grew by about 22 percent over the same period, according to census figures.
      Hispanics of all races made up a tiny portion of the population in northwest Lower Michigan - only 4,699 people, or 1.4 percent, in 2000 - but that's more than twice as much as the 2,002 Hispanics who lived in the region 10 years earlier.
      By comparison, the region's largest minority population - those who identified themselves as Native Americans - totaled 5,027 or 1.5 percent of the region's total.
      The Native American population grew by 32 percent over the last decade. The figure for those who identified themselves as Native American and also some other racial category was larger in 2000, at 7,765. Previous census surveys did not provide for choosing more than one category.
      The national headcount was conducted last April.
      Census figures show Hispanics clustered in several areas within the region, including northern Leelanau County, Traverse City, Peninsula and Blair townships in Grand Traverse County, Manistee, Cadillac, Gaylord, Elk Rapids, Charlevoix, Petoskey and Cheboygan. The largest groups are in Grand Traverse, Leelanau and Manistee counties. Leelanau, at 3.3 percent, had the largest Hispanic population, while Cheboygan and Otsego counties had the smallest, each with 0.8 percent.
      School administrators and teachers also have noted the trends. Hispanic enrollments have become more significant in five communities in the region. According to records compiled by Charlene Schlueter at the Northwest Michigan Council of Governments, more than 9 percent of the students enrolled in the Bear Lake School District in Manistee are Hispanic. So are more than 5 percent of the students in the Onekama schools and nearly 7 percent of the students at the Casman Alternative Academy in Manistee.
      In the Northport school district the percentage last year was 14.3 percent, the highest in the region. In Suttons Bay, it was nearly 7 percent. In the Leland Public School District, the Hispanic enrollment is 5 percent, just slightly less than in Elk Rapids. All are in fruit-growing areas.
      "In past years, the area's Hispanic populations were more migratory and most of the kids didn't stay to be enrolled in the fall after fruit harvests," said Mike McIntyre, superintendent of the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District. "Now, many are settling into the region and that's driving up Hispanic enrollments. Also, jobs have become more readily available than they were in past times, and that helps to allow them to stay."
      While some of the Hispanic population growth has been from in-migration and what has been called "settling out" by seasonal migrant workers, growth also has come from the fact that, as a group, Hispanics historically have more children than non-Hispanics.
      Figures relating to family size and composition by groups will be released later by the Census Bureau. Data released last month on population under 17 tells much of the story. Among the region's Hispanic population, nearly 48 percent are 17 years old and under compared to the non-Hispanic population where the proportion is 24.9 percent.
      Meanwhile, Miguel Osorio, the grocer, has found himself becoming an informal community center director for his Hispanic customers and new people setting up households here.
      "All the time we get people who come to us wanting to know about jobs, schools, churches and where to get medical help and we are happy to help them out," he said.