Pilsen Community in Chicago - Research Paper Example

Pilsen Community in Chicago Chicago’s Pilsen area is one of the largest Mexican-American communities in the United States. Majority of residents in this area exhibit Latino family backgrounds. Pilsen is famous for being home to thousands of people immigrants from Mexico. In the recent past, Pilsen has become a key focus for social and economic policy makers. This is because Pilsen community suffers from massive poverty trends and persistent poor economic conditions. Such community issues revolve around immigration practices that influence the overall wellbeing of Mexican-Americans in Pilsen.

Over the years, massive immigration from Mexico has been the primary cause of increased population in the Pilsen community (Kidner, Higgs, & White, 2003). Immigrants from Mexico move to the United States hoping to improve their lives in one way or another. Critical to note, however, is that majority of Latino aliens in Pilsen are undocumented and/or illegal. Even though documented and legal families are significant in number, the problem of undocumented and illegal immigrants remains a challenge in the Pilsen community.

Poverty and persistent poor economic conditions are critically intertwined as far as the Pilsen community is concerned. Even though Pilsen-based families have been in the area for decades, their individual and/or community-based economic development has been slow due to little or no engagement with the rest of Chicago area. This is because undocumented persons face a long list of ineligibility when it comes to city, state, or federal programs. As a result, Pilsen community residents remain stuck in poor and unprogressive social and economic status.

Without due and legal recognition, majority of Pilsen community residents remain unemployed or poorly paid in jobs that do not require city and/or state approval. In other words, Pilsen community exhibits casual employment and remuneration rates that barely comply with the minimum wage requirements (Benton-Short, 2013). In addition, literacy levels have been critically affected over the years. As many people struggle to meet their daily needs, there are minimal resources available to send the young generation to school.

Even with little resources available for education, the issue of undocumented and illegal immigrants still affects the community in that regard.The search for a better life and the state’s persistence over ineligibility of undocumented Mexican-Americans inform the recurrent problem of poverty and social and economic welfare issues in the Pilsen community. As more and more Mexican-Americans move into the area from both within and outside the United States, poverty and other community-based social issues will only escalate.

In fact, Wilson (2008) contends that a significant number of Latinos who have been in the area for decades have little, if any, major personal, social, and economic developments to show for it.In conclusion, it is evident that Pilsen community in Chicago faces numerous social issues, among them poverty. Amid increased population in the area, legal documentation and citizenship registration of persons have been significantly low. This has left many Pilsen residents ineligible for city, state, and/or federal programs.

As a result, poverty and related issues constitute a key problem for the Pilsen community.ReferencesBenton-Short, L. (2013). Cities of North America: Contemporary Challenges in U.S. and Canadian Cities. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.Kidner, D., Higgs, G., & White, S. (2003). Socio-Economic Applications of Geographic Information Science. Boca Raton: CRC Press.Wilson, C. E. (2008). The Politics of Latino Faith: Religion, Identity, and Urban Community. New York: NYU Press.