By Justin Pritchard/AP
Foreign-born residents of Silicon Valley earn less on average than those born in the United States but pay more for housing, a new government survey concludes.
A booming high-tech economy is attracting overseas labor but also is pushing housing costs to dizzying heights.
Those market forces have created a gap between U.S.-born residents who settled down before the housing crunch and immigrants who must contend with generally higher housing costs and with landlords who may see them as easy targets for inflated rents.
Those are the findings of a Santa Clara County report released Dec. 6 in conjunction with its Summit on Immigrant Needs and Contributions. The report surveyed more than 800 immigrants from the five largest immigrant groups — Mexicans, Vietnamese, Filipinos, Chinese and Indians — over 16 months.
Whites are far from a majority in this Northern California county, and one in three residents is foreign born.
The housing stock isn’t nearly as diverse — it’s all expensive. One-bedroom apartments in some complexes start at $1,800 in San Jose, the center of the 1.8 million-resident county. And rents can jump by 40 percent in six months.
Technology has built the local economy, and the workers have come. Many enjoy six-figure jobs as computer programmers — but many others are janitors and dishwashers.
The average U.S.-born county resident took home $33,800 last year — but the total for immigrants was $28,600 per month, the report said. The exceptions are immigrants from India, who earn more than U.S.-born residents in part because many are recruited to fill high-wage technology jobs.
The average U.S.-born resident pays just over $1,100 per month in rent or mortgage. Members of the five largest immigrant groups all pay more.
Those from India, for example, pay $1,750 per month — perhaps understandable given their higher incomes and their arrival in a tight housing market. But Mexican Americans and Vietnamese Americans, many of whom arrived two decades or more ago, still pay more than U.S.-born residents.
Just why is a matter of conjecture.
Immigrants tend to have bigger families and thus might seek bigger houses. Another factor may be gouging by landlords.
“Immigrants, especially recent arrivals, have less of a knowledge of housing law,’’ said Rand Quinn, executive director of SIREN, a non-profit immigrant services agency. “They’re more susceptible to discrimination.’’
Whatever the reason, the impact is acute, says Alicia Carvajal, a housing counselor at San Jose’s Legal Aid Society.
“When we have expensive housing, we have to work two jobs and our children are on the street,’’ Carvajal said.
Some Findings from the Study
- San Jose’s population has gone from 80 percent non-Hispanic Caucasian to less than 30 percent in the last three decades.
- 42 percent of immigrant households live on $50,000 per year or less.
- Immigrants work longer hours than U.S. natives.
- Mexican, Vietnamese and Filipino immigrant families have at least one more member in their household than U.S.-born families.
- Source: Santa Clara County
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