Why are Mexicans living in Beloit?

Why are there Mexicans in Beloit?

One of the interesting things about running a blog is you can see how people arrived there. A few weeks ago someone from Janesville, Wisconsin googled “Why do Mexicans live in Beloit” and they wound up on my blog. This is likely because I talk about Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin, where I taught last year, and Mexico. I have not talked about Mexicans living in Beloit until now.

There are definitely Mexicans living in Beloit, I know since I have sampled some of the great taquerias around the city (ones with Spanish jukeboxes and majority Latino clientele). A look at the 2000 Census data shows that Latinos make up around 10% of the Beloit population (almost as much as African Americans, 12%). Obviously, not all Latinos are Mexican, but in Beloit I’m pretty sure most are. Using Census data we can also examine specific characteristics for Latinos. According to the census about half of the Latinos (1,800 out of the 3,500) were born outside of the United States. Another interesting statistics about 2/3 household speak a language other then English at home.

One reason Latinos might decide to live in Beloit is they seem to be making about the same amount of money as the average non Latino, and much more than they would have in Mexico. For those of you who are not familiar with Janesville and Beloit the two cities are about 20 minutes apart, but Beloit has for a long time had more racial diversity, while Janesville continues to be 95% white. So perhaps there is another reason Latinos live in Beloit.

One final note even in DC I cannot find Mexican food as good as Beloit.