Growing diversity makes C-U
a cosmopolitan area
By Mabel Thurmon
For The News-Gazette

   In the last century, one of the main changes in Champaign-Urbana has been the population increase in ethnic groups - especially people of Asian and of Hispanic origin.
   Between 1980 and 1990, the population of the two groups increased about 48 percent.
   What brought about this change? Partly, it was immigration laws and the relationship between the United States and other countries. Also, some of the special programs at the University of Illinois and labor shortages in selected fields have played a role.
   The UI has played an important role in bringing Chinese people to Champaign-Urbana, according to Carol Huang, a doctoral candidate in the UI Department of Educational Policy Studies.
   While doing research, Huang learned that the Exclusionary Chinese Act in 1882 prevented the Chinese from coming to the United States. The law said only Chinese diplomats, travelers, teachers and students were allowed to come. However, those Chinese who came to the United States in 1849 during the gold rush in California were allowed to stay.
   The first Chinese to settle in C-U were members of the Long family, Huang said. The family originally came to this country during the gold rush period, but later settled in C-U in 1890. After the gold rush and completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1859, the Longs and other Chinese families tried to make a living outside the "Chinatowns" in big cities, such as Chicago. After settling in C-U, the family soon started a business, the Sam Long Laundromat on Main street in Urbana.
   It was UI President Edmund James who determined to open the door of the UI to Chinese students, said Huang.
   In the early 1900s, James was one of the advocates for improving the relationship between China and the United States. He perceived the potential power of China and the importance of having a good relationship with China. James believed that education was the best way to build a bridge with China. Huang said James also believed that helping Chinese students study here would help China's future.
   To reach his goal, in 1905, James invited Chinese Ambassador Ting Feng Wu to come to the UI to give a commencement address. Following the ceremony, Wu was given an honorary doctorate.
   President James apparently did a good job. Since then, large numbers of Chinese students have arrived to study at the UI. Huang said that between 1906 and 1960, among all the universities in the United States, the UI granted the largest number of doctorate degrees to Chinese students. For example, Huang said, in 1911, 30 percent of all Chinese college students in the United States studied at the UI.
   The UI also attracted other foreign scholars. In 1948, on the UI campus, there were many other foreign students, including quite a few Chinese graduate students and researchers, Bei Tse Chao recalled.
   Chao is a native of China and a professor emeritus of mechanical and industrial engineering at the College of Engineering. Chao said when he came to the campus, he and another Chinese professor were the only two Chinese faculty members. Chao came to the UI in 1948 as a visiting assistant after he received his doctorate degree in England. Chao and his wife, May, a retired UI librarian, had planned to stay in the United States for one year. But 52 years later, they are still here. There were several reasons.
   The communist takeover of China in 1949 made them hesitant to return. And the UI later decided Chao was too valuable to lose. When Chao was applying for permanent U.S. residency some 40 years ago, Norman Alwyn Parker, his department head, wrote that "Chao's unusual combination of practical experience and high theoretical training makes him an irreplaceable member in the department."
   Chao's research funding and the graduate study program he established brought more and more postgraduate students, nationally and internationally, to study in the department. Today there are 12 postgraduate students in the department. Eleven are international students.
   Some other programs at the UI, such as the East Asian Language and Culture program, also attracted not only Asian students, faculty members and their families, but people from other countries as well.
   William McDonald, an assistant professor in the Department of East Asian Language and Culture, recalled that there were only four Asian faculty members when the department was still affiliated with the Asian Pacific Study program in the 1960s. After the department became independent in 1991, the number of Asian faculty members increased considerably.
   Today, the department has 22 Asian faculty members, including other departmental instructors who give selected lectures, according to Jean Poole, secretary of the department.
   It is not only the UI that has brought people from other nations to Champaign-Urbana. The shortage of doctors in the United States has brought many foreign physicians and their families to this country, as well as to C-U. Among the foreign doctors are Asian and Hispanic physicians at the local hospitals and clinics. Others serve in small communities in Champaign County.
   The year-round labor shortage, especially in food businesses and factory work, attracts many Hispanics to Champaign-Urbana.
   According to Hugh Phillips, a founder of El Centro, a nonprofit organization, the Hispanic population in Champaign-Urbana has increased dramatically in the past eight years - from about 500 in 1950 to about 6,000 now.
   Among that population, said Phillips, there are 3,000 "urban Latino migrants," who mainly migrate from Mexico and Central America. He said they differ from summer migrant farm laborers, who come to central Illinois during the summer season and leave as soon as the harvest is finished.
   The urban migrants, he said, stay as long as they have a job. And they keep coming.
   Phillips said most of these people are hard-working young men from the age of 16 to 30. They work about 60 to 70 hours a week, Phillips said.
   "These people send most of their earnings home to support their families, including parents and siblings," he said. For these Hispanics, Champaign-Urbana is a place to find work. They take jobs, most of which are hard labor with relatively low pay, that most local residents are unwilling to take in the food business and factories.
   Phillips said more Hispanics will probably come to Champaign-Urbana as long as there are jobs for them.
   The high demand for computer-skilled labor is another door opened widely for people from other nations hoping to come to the area. The advanced computer program at the UI has attracted students, researchers and faculty members from various countries.
   At the UI Department of Computer Science, every year visiting scholars arrive from many countries, said Barbara Armstrong, secretary of the department. "They usually stay one or two years and leave, but others will come," said Armstrong. Of the 38 faculty members in the department, nine are Asian and two are Hispanic.
   At the UI's National Center for Supercomputing Applications, among the 300 academic staff, there are 32 Asians, according to Karen Green of the public information office.
   Local businesses also welcome people from other nations who have computer backgrounds.
   Ernesto Zepeda, 29, came to Champaign-Urbana in 1998 from Mexico. Zepeda works at Vesuvius USA as a computer specialist. He received a bachelor's degree in computer science in Mexico and worked for a steel company there before coming to C-U.
   While working in Mexico, in order to get a better-paying job, Zepeda applied for and was hired by the Vesuvius USA branch in Mexico. When the company asked Zepeda if he would like to work in the United States, his answer was "yes." Zepeda came to Champaign-Urbana with his wife, Christina. She has a computer-management system degree from Mexico. Now she is trying to improve her English skills and is working toward a management-information system degree at Parkland College.
   Christina said she would also like to get a job in Champaign-Urbana. "It was the computer technology that brought us here," she said.
   The two like their rented Baytowne apartment. They plan to work here for a long time and become permanent U.S. residents. "Then," said Christina proudly, "we will buy a house here."
   Buying a house is an attainable goal for some who have relocated to Champaign-Urbana. Anh Ha Ho, director of the East Central Illinois Refugee Mutual Assistance Center in Urbana, said the majority of Vietnamese in Champaign-Urbana are Vietnam refugees who arrived between 1975 and 1986.
   These people were penniless when they arrived, said Ho. The refugee center would lend each family or individual $500. Ho and Tam Dang Wei, the founder of the center, would help them rent a place to live or buy a mobile home before they were able to have their own home. Most of them liked to buy mobile homes where other Vietnamese lived, Ho said, "because, as newcomers, they really wanted to be close to someone who had the same cultural background as they had."
   However, buying a house is an American dream to these people. To make the dream come true, they work hard and live frugally, said Ho. Some of them work two jobs. Today, many of them still work in local businesses, including the Solo Cup and Collegiate Cap & Gown companies.
   Ho said the Vietnamese live very frugally for several years before purchasing a house. They want to buy a house with a one-time payment. "Vietnamese people just do not like to borrow money," said Ho. "Anyone can make it, if she or he works hard enough."
   Today, instead of huddling together, Vietnamese residents are found throughout Champaign-Urbana and other towns. Though they remain good friends, they do not feel the need to live close to one another, Ho said. "They feel C-U is their home."
   Ho believes the growing number of Asian and Hispanic restaurants and grocery stores in Champaign-Urbana also has helped them feel more at home.
   The local Vietnamese population is increasing, said Wei. Some Vietnamese migrate to C-U from big cities. Wei said these newcomers learned from their relatives and friends that the refugee center offered more help than those in most big cities. Wei said they find the cost of living in C-U is relatively low, the people are friendly, racial prejudice and crime problems are low, and living here is convenient in many ways.
   One of the conveniences is the variety of ethnic restaurants and grocery stores. Such steadily growing businesses attract more and more Asians and Hispanics to the area. The increasing diversity of Champaign-Urbana can be credited to many in generations past who paved the way for newcomers.
   "President Edmund James," said Huang, "should get a lot of credit."

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