Latin Americans in the U.S.A. Distrust Government Institutions

A great part of the Hispanic population that lives in the United States expresses an attitude of significant distrust towards the political, judicial, police and other institutions.

"We are observing a very interesting phenomenon in which the Latinos in the United States seem to drag that mistrust towards the democratic institutions so characteristic of our countries ", said Eduardo Gamarra, director of the Center for Latin America and the Caribbean from the Florida International University (FIU).

The expert mentioned the results of a recent survey held amongst the Hispanic population in the United States by New link Research, which showed that only 17% of the surveyed have confidence in the political parties, 37 % in Congress and the justice system and 39% in the police.

In contrast, the educative institutions (83%), the church (78 %) and the banks (73%) enjoy the highest levels of Latinos confidence.

"These results are very similar to that obtained in Latin American countries, which seems to indicate that Latinos that arrive at the United States don’t integrate fully to the country’s political life," affirmed Gamarra.

The academic, related these results to the thesis presented by the controversial investigator Samuel Huntington, from Harvard University according to which, the Latin immigrants resist to assimilate the American culture and learn the English language, forming enclaves in the great cities and threatening with the creation of a country divided in two cultures and two languages.

"In a certain sense, Professor Huntington would seem to be correct, of course his conclusions are extreme and ignore the great contributions that Latinos continuously make to this country", indicated Gamarra.

From: Dominican Today (www.dominicantoday.com)