Correction Appended
Political leaders might want to look at a town in Oregon with a population of 20,000 to see how the city deals with race, labor and immigration issues.
The city is one of few places in Oregon where the white population is the minority, and the community has dealt with rapidly changing demographics in recent years. At least one University researcher hopes to learn something from the unique situation.
University geography professor Lise Nelson studied Woodburn, a Willamette Valley town 82 miles north of Eugene in Marion County, to research farmworker housing there.
The area’s rich soil makes it ideal for farming, and many of those farms have depended on migratory workers who lived in labor camps until the 1980s, Nelson said. The area’s nursery industry, agricultural processing plants and Christmas tree industry all expanded during that time, and employers needed farmworkers to stay longer.
The Farmworker Housing Development Corporation, established in 1991, built two housing projects in Woodburn to create safe and affordable housing for farmworkers in the mid and late 1990s. The projects, however, faced resistance from city leaders and some residents, Nelson said. Project leaders struggled to move along plans to build the housing.
Now, Nelson and city leaders say the town is embracing its diverse culture. Still, some problems and tensions exist in the largest Oregon city with a majority Latino population, they say.
Nelson said other small- and medium-sized cities across Oregon and the United States that are dealing with growing immigrant populations can look to Woodburn as an example. Strong resistance to FHDC on the part of city leaders in the early and mid-1990s turned out to be unfounded, as the new farmworker housing projects were remarkably successful on all counts, Nelson said.
“Other places can recognize the growing diversity in Oregon and the way in which it’s now part of the social fabric in Oregon, and we should celebrate that,” Nelson said.
Woodburn will continue to deal with race issues as much of its population is non-white.
In 1990, Woodburn was home to 33 percent Latinos; during the 2000 census, more than 50 percent of the town’s population was Latino. That population segment is expected to be even higher during the next census in 2010.
Nelson said Woodburn is embracing its Mexican population and is sometimes called Oregon’s “Little Mexico.”
“The city seems to be embracing its Mexican identity openly and very deeply now,” Nelson said.
The city is also home to many Mexican celebrations, Nelson said.
“Still, there’s some exclusion from decision making,” Nelson said, adding that only one Latino sits on the city council.
Jason Horton, the editor of the Woodburn Independent newspaper, has lived in Woodburn for eight years. He said he hasn’t seen many problems between the Mexican-American population and city leaders during that time. He said he wishes the Latino community would get more involved in civic organizations.
“I think Latino relations are good, but overall there needs to be more involvement,” Horton said. “The school district is a microcosm of the city, but no Hispanics run for the school board even though the majority of students are Hispanic.”
Deb Yager, president of the Woodburn Area Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber is creating a Latino networking group for business leaders. She said other chambers have created separate chambers for Latinos, but Woodburn wanted one.
“We want to be cohesive and operate as one and draw more Hispanic businesses into the chamber,” she said, adding the chamber could help address problems, such as crime, as one entity.
Nelson’s research brings light to Oregon’s rising Latino population and how government organizations deal with that change.
“This progress was only achieved through organizations getting together to earn their rights,” Nelson said.
Nelson interviewed business leaders, farmworkers, city leaders, an ex-mayor, among others, for her study, which appeared in Geographical Review and Cultural Geographies. She has been working on the study since 2002 and said she would drive to Woodburn when she had time to conduct interviews.
“As a geographer, I’m interested in space and the meaning people attach to it – who is on the outside, who is on the inside, who has a right to that space,” Nelson said.
For more information, those interested can visit http://csws.uoregon.edu/Immigration/index.htm.
Those who wish to learn more could also attend a conference about immigration held at the School of Law starting May 22, Nelson said.
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