Earlier today Statesman Journal education reporter Stefanie Knowlton posted the Salem-Keizer School Districts yearly snapshot, the districts look at its demographics, statistics and other information.
While there a number of interesting facts (and some concerning ones, such as 60 percent of students receiving free or reduced lunch), the one that jumped out to me regarded languages.
SKSD reports often that more than 60 languages are spoken in the homes of its students, something I knew but has always surprised me.
What I hadnt noticed before is that third among the most common second languages, just behind the obvious Spanish and Russian, was Marshallese.
The Marshall Islands have around 67,000 residents with another 22,000 or so people of Marshallese descent living in the United States. As a comparison, the SKSD has around 40,000 students. So how could a community of only around 90,000 be such a big part of the second-largest school district in Oregon?
Salem and Marion County actually have the largest Marshallese community in Oregon, and by a wide margin.
Oregon had just less than 1,000 residents identify themselves as Marshallese in the 2010 census, and more than half of them lived in Marion County. Salem has 334 Marshallesse, with no other city counting more than 100. Tigard was close at 98, with Four Corners and Keizer third and fourth on the list, as well.
Marshallese wasnt a category in the 2000 census, but Marion County had 530 residents as Other Micronesian that year, the highest in the state. Salem had 373, just behind Portland at 480.
Looking at the numbers for 2000 and 2010, it appears the change may have been an issue in counting Portland. While there were efforts to get Marshallese residents to mark so on the 2010 census form, my guess is that many in Portland didnt get news of the change. This year the city listed only 19 Marshallese residents despite having the largest Micronesian population in the state at 1,659. Salem was second at 1,280.
Even if Portland may actually be No. 1, Salem has a growing Micronesian and Marshallese population that far outstrips what one would expect for a community its size.
I did a little digging in the archive and found a story former Statesman Journal reporter Dan DeCarbonel did in 2003 on the growing Marshallese community. At the time a community leader estimated the population at around 700-800, though looking at census figures that may have been a little high. Heres the full story:
Marshallese find land of opportunity, adjustment
Immigrants run into cultural and language barriers.
BY DAN de CARBONEL
Statesman Journal
Ricky Alik is a new kind of Oregon pioneer.
Unlike a previous group of immigrants who blazed the Oregon Trail to settle the Willamette Valley, Aliks trail spanned thousands of miles of Pacific Ocean as he helped lead a large migration from the Marshall Islands.
Since 1990, the Pacific Islander population has grown more than 4,650 percent in Marion County. Many of these newcomers are immigrants from the Marshall Islands.
Alik, the president of the recently formed Marshallese Community Organization, said that between 700 and 800 people from the Marshall Islands now call Salem home.
Located about halfway between Hawaii and Australia, the Marshall Islands consist of 34 tiny atolls and islands totaling 70 square miles of dry land and 4,500 square miles of lagoons. They are spread across an area of the Pacific eight times the size of Oregon. The republics population is about 56,000.
The islands were the site of numerous nuclear tests conducted by the United States in the 1940s and 50s.
Alik, 48, arrived in the Salem area in the early 1980s to attend what is now Western Oregon University in Monmouth. He returned to Salem in 1987 with his wife, Ann, and two sons. They were one of the first Marshallese families in the Salem area.
Encouraged by the strong US economy in the 1990s, hundreds followed. Alik has more than 100 extended family members living in the area. Similar migration patterns have occurred in cities throughout the West Coast, he said.
On Tuesday, Alik and MCO member Binni Malolo appeared before the Salem Human Rights amp; Relations Commission in recognition of the growth of the Marshallese community in Salem.
Alik related the struggles members of his community have in adjusting to life in the United States and Salem.
We have problems getting work because of limited English skills, he said. And we have troubles with people not understanding their rights as workers or when dealing with law enforcement or the law.
Alik makes his living as a court translator for Marshallese speakers. He said many Marshallese arent made aware of resources, such as health care, that can ease their adjustment to life in Oregon. Workers often dont know their rights or even if they do, they are inclined not to speak up for themselves.
Our people dont complain, he said. Marshall Islanders are very cool people, very polite. Thats just the way we are due to our traditional culture. Our people dont know what discrimination is.
The Salem area has experienced a rapid growth in the number of immigrants who speak Marshallese. Among students enrolled in Language Learner programs in the Salem-Keizer School District during the last school year, 102 spoke Marshallese, the third largest group behind Spanish (3,855) and Russian (187).
Demographers said strong family relationships and looser immigration rules because of the countrys historical ties to the United States have sparked the migration.
The Marshallese community in Salem has become well established and have formed a tight social network, Alik said. There are four churches serving their spiritual needs.
Malolo, 32, moved to Salem three years ago to lead one of the congregations. He left the Marshall Islands to attend Bible college in Plano, Texas, and moved around through Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas before moving to Portland, then to Salem. He works at the Kettle Foods plant and at Salem Outreach Center on the weekends to help make ends meet.
He is married with four kids and has many cousins, lots of cousins, he said, in the area.
The strong family ties between Marshallese immigrants can sometime cause friction, as the newcomers learn that life in the United States is different than it is on the Marshall Islands. Alik said the transition is felt almost immediately.
Youll stay with your cousin and hell tell you, `You have to pay rent, and you say, `Whats rent? Alik said. We dont have rent in the Marshall Islands. We just stay with each other.
The Marshall Islands is about love and sharing, Alik said. In our culture, if someone catches a lot of fish, they will share it with his family and friends. When I have a car, my wife, my son and my brother have a car. Here in the United States, if I have a car, its just my car.
The acclimation process hasnt been without difficulty, but Alik is hopeful that his new organization will make it easier for others who follow.
You know America is the land of opportunity, he said, but when you arrive here, you dont know what Oregon is.