Over the next four days in San Diego, the L’ATTITUDE conference will bring together business, association and political leaders to discuss and better understand the role Latinos play in our economy.
A report released Thursday shows that the Latino community in the U.S. is growing — not just in population, but in the way they strive to succeed and achieve more for their families than they did 10 years ago.
San Diego attorney Andrew Schouten was having lunch downtown when NBC 7 Responds told him about the report and what it had to say about Latinos. Why did it matter to him? Don’t let his name confuse you. He is Latino – half Dutch and half Mexican.
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“If I was in a Mexican high school, it would say in my picture, Andres Eduardo Escouten Del Bosque," he said.
Schouten said that he owes much of his success to his family who were farmworkers. One summer, they took him out as a kid to pick cantaloupes in California’s Central Valley. He called this "boot camp for life."
“That work ethic and desire to work as much as possible absolutely translates to my life as well," he said.
His story is one of many Latinos living in this country and part of the bigger story told by the 2024 Latino gross domestic product report. The report marked the Latino GDP at $3.6 trillion. This means that if the U.S. Latinos were a country, they’d be the fifth largest economy in the world. From 2011 to 2021 the Latino economy grew more than twice as fast as non-Latinos.
The report mentions three main reasons for this. Number one is population. The Latino population is growing almost five times faster than the non-Latino. Another factor is a higher labor force participation among Latinos 16 years and older.
“Latinos don’t start with the same resources as other populations, and so they have to work harder to get ahead. But that’s part of the Latino work ethic. If you give me a chance to work for it, I’m going to work hard and I’m going to get it,” Schouten said.
The final driver is education. According to the report, a higher percentage of Latinos have a bachelor’s degree or higher. Frida Gonzalez, a San Diego State student, said her immigrant parents worked hard for her to get a degree, just like many of her Latino classmates and younger family members.
“They’re achieving their dreams, but they’re also achieving their parents' dreams at the same time," Gonzalez said.
The report also points to significant positive Latino influence in many states' economies, like California, Texas and Florida. It also shows what it calls a “surprising surge” of Latino economies in states like North and South Dakota, New Hampshire and Maine.
