- Author: BusinessWire.com
“it is important that Hispanic/Latino children learn about the Hispanic culture”
Patterns from previous waves of immigrants to the US suggested that today's generations of US Hispanics would acculturate quickly. The research shows no increase, however, in the proportion of Hispanics who identify themselves as “highly acculturated” – just 18%, the same figure as in 2009. By contrast, 55% of US Hispanics now consider themselves “Bicultural,” up from 43% five years ago. The group that is shrinking is the “less acculturated,” who showed a 12-point drop, from 37% in 2009 to 25% this year.
This trend toward biculturalism may be related to the fact that more US Hispanics now say they were born in the US (43%) than in Mexico (37%); the two figures have essentially flipped from 2009 to 2014, with the proportion of those saying they were born outside of the US dropping by 11 points.
Reflecting this move towards Biculturalism, the language mix in the US Hispanic home has also changed distinctly; the proportion of those who speak “more Spanish than English” has dropped from 30% to 21%, while the figures have risen for “both languages equally” (from 21% to 25%) and “more English than Spanish” (14% to 19%). Being monolingual (all English or all Spanish) is the exception for US Hispanic households; 81% speak at least some English in the home, while 85% speak at least some Spanish.
US Hispanics are also relating more to some “mainstream” US cultural values, such as being willing to give up family time to get ahead and rejecting fatalism. Over four in ten (41%) said they agree at least partly with the statement, “Being successful is important, even if I have to sacrifice time with family and friends”; this compares to 37% five years ago. In contrast, a full 86% believe that “it is important that Hispanic/Latino children learn about the Hispanic culture” – suggesting that Hispanic values and culture remain strong.
“This data clearly confirms what many in the Hispanic marketing space have been seeing – that the market is changing,” said Carlos Garcia, SVP of GfK's Multicultural practice in North America. “The market is acculturating, and yet it remains distinctly Hispanic in taste and feel. Hispanics are not immune to the ebbs and flows of the economic and social tides; but even as they adapt, they are holding on to their food, their families, and their values. Out of this data, two key lessons for marketers emerge -- communicating to Hispanics can no longer be only in Spanish; and, conversely, more English-language communications are reaching Hispanics, and therefore need to be sending out a coordinated strategic message – even as it is fine-tuned culturally to reach diverse populations.”
The new findings come from six years of profile surveys among participants in GfK's KnowledgePanel Latino, which covers 93% of Hispanics of all acculturation levels – including English- and Spanish-dominant and bilingual people. It also represents the 32% of Hispanics without internet access at home by providing those panelists with a computer and ISP.
Source:Published originally on BusinessWire.com as55% of US Hispanics Consider Themselves Bicultural – Up 12 Points Since 2009, December 11, 2014
- Author: Rice University Office of Public Affairs by Amy Hodges
The study, “Gender, Acculturation and Smoking Behavior Among U.S. Asian and Latino Immigrants,” examines smoking prevalence and frequency among Asian and Latino U.S. immigrants. The research focuses on how gender differences in smoking behavior are shaped by aspects of acculturation and the original decision to migrate. The study was published recently in the journal Social Science & Medicine and is available online.
“We know that after migrants come to the U.S., their health behavior and health status changes the longer they live in the United States,” said Bridget Gorman, chair and professor of sociology at Rice and the study's lead author. “Our study examined how time spent in the U.S., along with other aspects reflective of acculturation to the U.S., relates to smoking behavior among Asian and Latino migrants.”
The study found that smoking prevalence among Asian immigrant men was more than four times that of Asian immigrant women (30.4 percent and 7.1 percent, respectively); among Latino immigrants, men's smoking prevalence was more than twice that of women's (29.5 percent and 12.6 percent, respectively). For smoking frequency, Asian men on average smoked 2.5 more cigarettes per day than Asian women, compared with 1.5 more cigarettes per day that Latino men smoked than Latino women.
In addition, their analyses also showed that smoking increases with duration of U.S. residence among Asian immigrants (both prevalence and frequency) and among Latino immigrants (frequency only). However, the study also found that independent of time spent in the U.S., “immigrants who form strong connections to the U.S. through English-language proficiency and citizenship acquisition benefit in terms of reduced smoking.” Gorman said this may be because the stresses associated with adapting to the U.S. have declined; but since both English-language proficiency and citizenship are associated with higher socio-economic standing, this might also indicate that smoking is lower among the most economically well-off migrants.
Gorman also noted that although there “tends to be an uptick in unhealthy behaviors like smoking after migration, patterns differ across ethnic groups and between men and women. In particular, women's smoking behavior tends to increase more after migration to the U.S. than men.” Gorman said the uptick in smoking among women may be due to differences in smoking stigma that exist for women in Latin America and especially Asia. She said that the smoking stigma for women is significantly less in the U.S., so when gender differences in smoking between the native and foreign-born are compared, gender gaps tend to be much larger among migrant populations living in the U.S.
The current study found that accounting for gender differences in aspects of acculturation (including time spent in the U.S., citizenship status, and English-language proficiency) explained gender differences in smoking frequency for both Asian and Latino migrants.
The study used a sample of 3,249 Asian and Latino migrant adults aged 18 and older. The study examined how smoking behavior relates to age at migration, citizenship status and length of time in the U.S., how frequently they visit their home country and how proficient they are in their native language and in English.
Source: US immigration is associated with rise in smoking among Latinos and Asians, Rice University Office of Public Affairs by Amy Hodges, August 11, 2014.
- Author: LatinPost.com
While sandwiches reign as the choice lunchtime item for Hispanics and non-Hispanics alike (18 percent of Hispanics compared to 38 percent of non-Hispanics), as the largest meal of the day for most Latinos, the meal not only includes rice (13 percent of Hispanics compared to 1 percent of non-Hispanics) but also a diverse range of lunchtime options, most of which is cooked at home. Evidence shows that rice dishes are homemade or partly homemade, and prepared using oil and spices, rather than "heat-and-eat or pre-flavored offerings."
"Eating and meal preparation habits can be very diverse by levels of acculturation, and by country of origin. Hispanics tend to continue to eat traditional food and beverages many years after arriving in the U.S., however as they became more acculturated, they expand their repertoire and include more American type dishes. Hispanics, especially the least acculturated, have a preference for scratch cooking, fresh and natural ingredients, but they certainly use packaged goods in their everyday lives," said a spokesman for NPD, a market research firm.
NPD's NET (National Eating Trends) Hispanic, a yearlong study revolving around Hispanics' consumption and purchasing, identified Hispanics purchasing habits so that marketers could gain an understanding of what items sell well, and to use that demographic as a prototype for shoppers in America. "Pockets of behaviors" have been identified, showing how Hispanics have impacted the food market. The availability of mangos, the consumption of Hispanic soft drinks, and ready-made cultural delicacies such as empandas has made this fact apparent.
"As Hispanics become an even greater influence on our culture and society, marketers would be wise to engage them in a manner that reflects their behaviors," said Darren Seifer, food and beverage industry analyst. "For example, rice is currently thought of as a dinnertime item, but perhaps it's time to rethink this, given the ways it is consumed among Hispanics."
Based on the eating habits of Latinos, there will likely be a development of fast food trends centered around rice as a component in main dishes, or it will be served in lieu of french fries or other side items.
Source: Published originally on the LatinPost.com as Biting Latinos' Lunchtime Habits: Hispanics Influence Overall Consumption Trends in the United States by Nicole Akoukou Thompson, February 5, 2014.
- Author: MediaPost.com
According to AP, which first reported the news, Los Angeles-based Fusion will deliver a combination of news, comedy, and sports. Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas, who co-host Univision's nightly newscast, will host a news program.
This isn’t Univision's only venture aiming to reach the growing audience of acculturated Hispanic millennials with English-language content. Univision has also invested in El Rey, a new English-language cable TV network created by Comcast and set to launch in December 2013. El Rey will feature content including reality shows, scripted series, news, comedy, music, animation, movies, documentaries and sports programming.
Univision is also investing in its core business of Spanish-language media. In 2012, the broadcaster launched a national, Spanish-language AM radio network featuring local, national and international news. The network, Univision America, includes AM stations in nine major Univision markets: Miami, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, McAllen, TX, El Paso, San Antonio, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
The network is set to go live Oct. 28.
Source: Published originally on MediaPost.com as ABC, Univision Launch Fusion For Millennial Hispanics, by Erik Saas, October 22, 2013.
- Posted By: Myriam Grajales-Hall
- Written by: Elizabeth Ellers, Univision
“We want to target acculturated Hispanics.” “Our general market campaign already reaches acculturated Hispanics.” “Spanish language advertising won’t be needed when Hispanics become acculturated.” According to the Univision Insight Blog, these are some of the common challenges to Spanish language media and Spanish language advertising, yet they represent a fundamental misunderstanding of the acculturation process among American Hispanics. Language use and acculturation are not synonymous, and the process of acculturation is fluid.
Acculturation – the result of contact between two different cultures – is not a binary characteristic like gender or employment. In fact, with many variations, acculturation is multidimensional. Individuals engage in the process of acculturation in different ways depending on whether they are native- or foreign-born, their age, who they marry, their geographic location, their employment and many other factors.
Language is just one of a number of dimensions on which Hispanics, and other ethnic groups, adapt to the prevailing U.S. culture. This spectrum includes food, entertainment, political engagement, leisure activities, fashion and values/mores. Focusing on the growing use of the English language by Hispanic-Americans presumes that acculturation and English language fluency are the same, when they are not.
Yankelovich MONITOR has found that 80 percent of Hispanics agree that “Immigrants to this country should be prepared to adapt to the American way of life” yet 87 percent also agree that they “Feel the need to preserve my own cultural traditions.”
A few illustrations of this dynamic in everyday life:
Walmart stocks its Hispanic Supercenters with both dried beans in bulk and Welch’s squeezable grape jelly, because Walmart has learned that Hispanic moms are shopping for family meals in which she values traditional foods and also shopping for her children who have acquired a taste for PB&J at school.
According to The Associated Press-Univision Poll conducted in 2010 by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, 41 percent of Hispanic-Americans observe Semana Santa (Holy Week) while 75 percent celebrate the Fourth of July. Two of the most popular foods among Hispanic-Americans are beans and rice AND macaroni and cheese.
One in five Hispanic-American men watched both the Super Bowl AND the World Cup tournament in 2010, again demonstrating that adopting some aspects of non-Hispanic American culture is not done at the expense of retaining an important part of Hispanic popular culture.
Hispanics are as likely to eat peppers (54 percent) as they are to eat pickles (53 percent), and almost as likely to eat bagels (53 percent) as tortillas (66 percent).
We also see examples of “neo-acculturation,” in which Hispanics experiment with some aspects of American culture, trying them on for size, so to speak, but then returning to their roots. Marriage and parenthood is often a trigger, when Hispanic-Americans re-assert the importance of carrying on their language, values, cultures and traditions to the next generation.
Language use is itself conditional and is more accurately a reflection of a bi-cultural way of living than of the process of acculturation. Bilingual Hispanics (and most Hispanic-Americans have some fluency in both English and Spanish) switch between languages by setting and context. They may conduct business in English, listen to music on a Spanish-language radio station, attend a movie in English, worship in Spanish, and so forth. The explosion in technology over the last two decades has made it easier for Hispanic-Americans to retain their use of Spanish and their connection to their country-of-origin through email, online newspapers, internet phone calls and video. Maintaining the use of Spanish is natural and organic and provides a rich tie to the Latin culture.
Most of the more than 50 million Hispanic-Americans move fluidly between two cultures, adopting American values AND retaining an emotional connection with the Latin culture through language and content that they connect with.
Source: Univision Insights Blog, “Acculturation is not a one-way street” by Elizabeth Ellers, August 23, 2011.