Word: vilsack
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...Iowans, it appears, don't want to live in Vilsack's melting pot. This is the fourth whitest state in America, and some people want it to stay that way. Just last week the Iowa legislature began debating a proposal to make English the state's official language. A Des Moines Register poll last year found that 58% of those surveyed oppose Vilsack's plan to bring in more immigrants. "Do we really want to be another California, with all of its immigrant problems?" says Roger Harrison, 68, a retired lawyer from Marshalltown. Given such opposition, Vilsack's move...
...Vilsack appointed a bipartisan group to figure out what to do. The Strategic Planning Council urged officials to use all available means to increase Iowa's population. "We've got to fire every bullet," says council chairman David Oman. And so in hopes of adding 310,000 new residents to the population over the next nine years, Vilsack is trying to lure expat Iowans back home. He is hosting receptions around the country for Iowa university alumni. But so far, only about 300 families have returned...
That's what makes the immigrants so important. Vilsack has designated three towns as Model Communities. Their mission: to come up with a blueprint for recruiting immigrants from other states and refugees who might be attracted by Iowa's low cost of living. But that part of Vilsack's plan has run into a prairie fire of opposition. Part of it is prejudice. But that's not the whole story. Iowans have reason to be leery because of unplanned immigration in the mid-'90s, when thousands of Hispanics came to Iowa communities like Marshalltown to work in meat-packing plants...
...native Iowans resented new arrivals who didn't assimilate. A group of vets pushed through an English-only resolution. "The tension came because the change was so rapid," says Ken Anderson, president of the Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce. Vilsack hopes to avoid repeating past mistakes by taking things slowly...
...Everywhere I went, people stared," she says. "It was so bad, I didn't want to go out." Today the town of 23,000 is 12% Hispanic. On Mulberry Avenue, Mexican groceries compete for customers, and the El Cabrito restaurant dishes up taquitos. It's a glimpse of Vilsack's vision for a multicultural Iowa. He just has to win over all his citizens...