252 A HISTORY OF AMERICA IN 100 MAPS
From 1945 to 2000, the nation’s population doubled
from 140 to 281 million. Much of that increase was
driven by immigration, the largest single source
of which was from Mexico. According to the 1990
census, natives of Mexico constituted over 20 percent
of the country’s foreign-born population. For much
of the twentieth century, that population centered in
the Southwest. Indeed, the presence of Latinos in the
Southwest long predates the westward expansion of
the United States. As Mexican Americans often quip,
it was the border that moved, not them. But the 2000
census returns revealed two remarkable changes.
First, while the Latino population continued to grow,
it was now soaring outside the Southwest. Second,
through the 1990s that growth was primarily rural
rather than urban. Indeed, Latinos were moving to
rural areas of the United States at greater rates than
any other racial or ethnic group.
In part this was facilitated by legislation passed
in 1986, which gave over 2 million undocumented
workers a more stable legal status, and thereby more
geographical mobility. At the same time, tighter
enforcement at the traditional spots along the US–
Mexico border meant that migrants were crossing
further east. Together, these changes exposed
Mexican immigrants—as well as Latinos already in
the country—to areas outside the Southwest and
West. Labor demands in these regions were quickly
filled by Latinos, primarily in meat processing, carpet
production, oil refining, and other light industries.
As a result of these factors, the Latino population
increased by 13 percent in the Midwest during
the 1990s, and nearly 19 percent in the Southeast.
Between 1992 and 1997, the number of Latinos in
ten states of the Midwest—Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri,
Kansas, and Nebraska—rose from 1.8 million to
2.3 million.
These shifting dynamics are highlighted in this
three-dimensional digital map, which was created by
demographers using new techniques of geographic
information systems (GIS). As the map indicates,
this shift was particularly apparent in the
meatpacking industry. In the early twentieth century,
companies such as Armour and Swift sought to make
IMMIGRATION AND WORK IN RURAL AMERICA
Applied Population Laboratory,
“Meatpacking and Hispanic Population
Percent Change 1990–2000: Midwest
Counties,” 2001
Chicago the hub of meatpacking by modernizing
techniques of butchering and transportation. These
streamlined techniques produced economies of scale
that put beef and pork at the center of the American
diet, and made Chicago the most important city of
the Midwest.
By the 1980s, however, several forces conspired
to disrupt the meatpacking industry yet again.
Americans had begun to adopt a diet that was
lower in fat, choosing chicken over beef. The cost of
poultry also dropped after producers expanded and
streamlined their operations, and from 1970 to 2000
per capita consumption doubled. All of this translated
into more jobs in poultry processing throughout the
Southeast. This growth of poultry consumption in
turn put pressure on the beef industry, which was
further compounded by the growth of imported—and
cheaper—meats. American meat-processing firms
responded by lowering wages, eliminating unions,
and hiring contract workers.
This competition also led to industry-wide
consolidation, just as it had in the early decades
of the twentieth century. By the late 1990s, four
companies accounted for half of American poultry
production, and 80 percent of beef. Tyson Foods,
for instance, now slaughters 5 million chickens and
a quarter of a million head of cattle every week.
Consolidation also led companies to move closer to
the livestock feedlots. From 1980 to 2000 several of
the largest American meat and poultry processors
relocated to rural Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska,
Oklahoma, and Texas. But these regions had been
declining in population for decades, which made
it difficult to find low-skilled and low-wage labor
to staff the plants. Meat-processing work is highly
unpleasant and dangerous—wet and noisy, with
high rates of injury. All of these factors led to
the aggressive recruitment of immigrant and
migrant labor.
The result has been a remarkable migration
of Latinos into rural regions and towns that had
historically been struggling to survive. In Nebraska,
almost every one of the state’s 93 counties lost
population in the 1980s, yet the number of Latinos
grew. That increase became an explosion in the
1990s. The IBP meatpacking plant in Dawson County,
Nebraska—shown on the map—drew more Latinos
than have been recorded in the census. By 1998,
Latinos constituted half of the student population for
the school district, and drove economic growth in the
county. Latinos now constitute the largest minority
group in Nebraska.
That rural revival was seen in Kansas as well.
Throughout the twentieth century, the town of Liberal