By Nikita K Espangel
Of the 22, shop 400 Marshall Islanders living in the United States, cost about 20 percent, visit this numbering, 4,300, are located in the state of Arkansas.
A survey was conducted by a non-profit organization in Arkansas, the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.
The foundation’s goals are to help close the economic and educational gaps that leave many Arkansas families including immigrant families in persistent poverty.
The profile was done after the foundation findings sometime after 2007 that the Marshall Islands represent the fourth largest origin country behind Mexico, El Salvador, and India.
According to Census data, the population of Marshallese in the U.S. has tripled in the past decade between from 6,700 in 2000 in to 22,400 in 2010.
Apparently, the community in Arkansas began when one man, John Moody, left the island in the 1970s for education and employment opportunities. Word soon spread to his relatives and friends who then moved to join them with the first wave of arrivals beginning in the 1980s.
The main reasons cited in the report for moving abroad were educational opportunities, better health care, and employment opportunities.
About 12 percent identified education as the reason for moving to Arkansas, with 18 percent saying education was an important issue for the Marshallese community. These statistics are even more interesting considering that 61 percent of respondents did not complete high school in the Marshall Islands.
A more optimistic figure relates to health care, with 63 percent having private health insurance, compared to Latinos, another large immigrant group in Arkansas, at 38 percent having private coverage.
However, not surprisingly, in line with the rest of America, less than half cited health care insurance quality as good, with 26 percent citing health care as too expensive.
15 percent of respondents cited jobs as the reason for their move, with an additional 9 citing better opportunities, and 2 percent finance. In highlighting the importance of jobs, 26 percent of respondents cited jobs as a top issue affecting them currently with 10 percent citing finance.
The study makes an interesting point in highlighting the legal status of first generation Marshallese living in the U.S. Marshall Islanders are considered immigrants without visas, thereby not being able to vote, “thereby making civic integration harder.” Unable to vote might be one reason why fifty-seven respondents lacked knowledge on U.S. political parties. However, these first generation islanders children who are born in the U.S. “[do] not [have to] face the same citizenship and status restrictions, and [are] likely to integrate more fully.”
19 percent of Marshall Islanders living abroad are located in Arkansas, making it the second largest state home to Marshallese next to Hawaii with 33 percent, followed by Washington at 10 percent, and California at 8 percent.
