COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Recruiting: Youth of Color
Military recruiters set sights on Hispanics
SUMMER HARLOW, The News Journal
August 12, 2007
Before he shipped off to basic training, Abraham Ramirez would don ared or blue National Guard shirt and head to work at the Wilmington
recruiting office for the Delaware Army National Guard.
He answered phones, occasionally fielding calls from Spanish speakers
interested in enlisting. He reached out to Wilmington's Puerto Rican
community -- Ramirez is a native of Puerto Rico -- talking up the
benefits of joining the Guard to friends and family.
For Ramirez, a 20-year-old with a child and an arrest record, the
military represented his best shot at a career. For the military,
Ramirez fit squarely in the target demographic: age 18 to 24 and Hispanic.
In Del-aware and other areas with relatively new but growing Hispanic
communities, the military is zeroing in on Latinos, running
Spanish-language recruitment ads, offering
English-as-a- second-language classes, and fast-tracking citizenship
applications.
The tactics, which recruiters say are aimed at making America's force
look like its population, have helped lead to an increase in recruits
-- Hispanics went from representing 10.5 percent of the active Army
in fiscal year 2001 to 12.6 percent in 2006. As the military
struggles to recruit and keep soldiers because of the war in Iraq,
the increase is a welcome trend for the Pentagon.
But critics contend that recruiters mislead potential Hispanic
recruits and their immigrant parents, who might not speak English.
And, they say, Hispanics end up as cannon fodder. A recent study
found that Hispanics are over-represented on the front lines, where
most fatalities and injuries occur.
A mother's worries
At first Ramirez's parents were convinced the recruiters were
scheming to send their first-born son to fight overseas. And while
they're still worried he might get deployed, they've come to accept
his decision as his best opportunity for pursuing college and a career.
"It's so dangerous, with the war," Elizabel Ramirez said. "I'm still
not comfortable, but it's his decision, and I respect him. As his
mother, I have to support him."
She left Puerto Rico 20 years ago, when Abraham was just a baby. She
and her husband wanted a better future for their family, she said.
Recruiters said immigrant parents often tend to be more likely to
support a child's enlistment, feeling a sense of gratitude for the
opportunities in their new country.
With four sons and a daughter, Angel and Elizabel Ramirez said they
have worked hard at multiple jobs to provide that better future, but
economically, they know, it's just not feasible to pay for college.
Which is another reason they have to accept their son's decision to enlist.
It's not exactly that the military is taking advantage of Hispanics,
she said. It's more that so many Hispanics without money are
emigrating from poor countries, and recruiters recognize that the
military becomes the default option.
Recruiters can give a distorted picture, glossing over the risks,
said Jorge Mariscal, University of California-San Diego professor of
Latino studies and a Vietnam War veteran who is a part of the Project
on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities that counters military recruiters.
"With any high-powered salesman, you need to make sure you understand
what you're getting into," he said. "Parents, first-generation
immigrant parents, they probably do not understand all the fine
points of what the recruiter's sales pitch is."
Spanish radio ads, aimed primarily at "influencers, " or the recruits'
families and friends, emphasize the benefits research has shown
resonate most with Hispanics, such as being part of a larger Army
family, the ability to succeed, and pride in service to country, said
Gary Bishop, deputy director of strategic communications, marketing
and outreach for the U.S. Army Accessions Command in Kentucky.
A military family is one of the things Staff Sgt. Betsy Valentin said
she likes best about her service in the Delaware Air National Guard.
"There's this camaraderie, " said the Puerto Rico native. "I feel
secure when I'm on base."
Reflecting America
It makes sense for the Army to focus on Hispanics, which make up the
fastest-growing pool for military recruitment, said Bishop.
"America's Army needs to reflect the demographic makeup of the
country," he said.
Hispanics represent only about 13 percent of the Army recruits but
about 18 percent of the civilian population aged 18 to 24, according
to Army statistics. In Delaware, Hispanics make up about 6 percent of
the population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Of about 310
Army Reserve soldiers in Delaware, 13 are Hispanic. In the Delaware
Air National Guard, about 25 of 1,002 are Hispanic.
So far this year, seven Hispanics have enlisted in the Delaware Air
National Guard, making this one of the best years ever for recruiting
of Hispanics, Tech. Sgt. Benjamin Matwey said. In recent years, about
20 percent of the Delaware Army National Guard's new recruits have
been Hispanic, Lt. Col. Greg Snapp said.
Spanish-language radio announcements have been running on Delaware
stations for the past three years, and recruiters have increased
their presence at cultural events.
Because the state's Hispanic population is growing so rapidly, the
decision to run Spanish ads wasn't so much an epiphany as it was
common sense, Snapp said.
Most of the recent Hispanic recruits have come from New Castle
County, and tend to be Puerto Rican, recruiters said. In Kent and
Sussex counties, recruits are more likely to be of Mexican or Central
American descent, they said.
The reasons Hispanics are joining are not radically different than
what drives any other youth to enlist, said Sgt. 1st Class Joseph
Nye, a recruiter for the Delaware Army National Guard.
About a third join for the education benefits, a third for job
opportunities and a third for service or discipline, Snapp said.
Ramirez signed up for the college money.
His West 26th Street, Wilmington, neighborhood of row houses, the
occasional bar and mom-and-pop shop is the "ghetto," Ramirez said.
"The area where I come from is not good. If you want to be something
in life, the military is the only way to go," he said. "I don't want
to end up another statistic because of the area I live in. I don't
want to end up a gang banger or a drug dealer. I want to be able to
say I did something different."
For Valentin, part of the attraction was that she knew she couldn't
afford any kind of career training without the military.
Finding herself divorced at age 22, and not knowing exactly what she
wanted to do with her life, Valentin, of Newark, walked into a
recruiter's office and shortly thereafter found herself enlisting in
the Delaware Air National Guard.
Once she joined, she said, "something clicked." She recently re-enlisted.
A medic, she'd eventually like to become a nurse.
Without the military, Valentin said, she'd probably still be
sterilizing instruments at Christiana Hospital, or working in
customer service somewhere.
"This put me on a good path, and now I know what I want to do," she said.
A good fit
Hispanics are an important source for the military, in part because
of the "traditional desire of the immigrant community to prove
themselves in their new country," said Tom Donnelly, a military
scholar with the conservative American Enterprise Institute for
Public Policy Research.
Also, he said, manliness and machismo are traits typically more
valued among Latinos than the general population -- and traits
typically associated with the military.
Because of the pressing need to maintain and expand the size of the
force, Donnelly said, he favors granting immigrants citizenship for
military service.
"The military has been a really important tool historically for
assimilating immigrants into American society," he said. "They're a
highly attractive source of manpower, and it would help rationalize
our immigration policy."
An estimated 69,000 foreign-born soldiers are serving in the U.S.
military, making up about 5 percent of active duty personnel,
according to the National Council of La Raza. More than 25,000
immigrants -- some posthumously -- have become U.S. citizens through
their military service.
Recruits don't have to be citizens, but they must be legal residents.
Still, undocumented immigrants often look to the military as a way
toward a legalized status.
Sweetening the deal
A bipartisan proposal included in the mammoth immigration reform bill
that died in Congress in June would have allowed undocumented
students to gain legal status by completing two years of military
service or college. Known as the DREAM Act, the measure is expected
to come before Congress as a stand-alone bill this fall.
For those here legally, President Bush in 2002 signed an executive
order fast-tracking citizenship applications for those who serve in
the military.
Because language can sometimes be a barrier within the immigrant
community, the National Guard is looking to launch a five-week
English-as-a- second-language training program for promising enlistees.
The Army already has an English language training program in place.
And the Delaware Air National Guard even conducted Spanish classes
for its English-speaking members.
"As more people come to the United States, they want a piece of the
American pie," Nye said. "Immigrants have always seen the military as
a way to get that."
Critics, however, say the military doesn't necessarily fulfill that
American dream. Many immigrants lack education, they say, and are
assigned to the infantry and other jobs that are difficult to
translate into civilian career skills.
According to a 2003 Pew Hispanic Center report, Hispanics were
over-represented in the most deadly frontline positions, making up
nearly 18 percent of personnel who handled weapons directly.
An ideal recruit
Ramirez said he likes the idea that in the military, he'll be doing
something not many else can. He likes the adrenaline rush, and so do
his friends, he said. Maybe that's why minorities end up on the front
lines, he said. They're choosing the more dangerous jobs because of the action.
Maybe that's part of a culture of machismo, he said.
Or maybe it's about responsibility and respect.
"People look at [soldiers] with respect because if anything happens,
they're the first ones to defend the country," he said. "That's how I
want to be seen. I want people to respect me."
Recruiters said they already can see how much Ramirez has matured
since he enlisted. They knew he was an ideal recruit, they said, so
they pursued him for two years.
Ramirez looks back at his pre-enlistment days and shakes his head,
writing himself off as a punk.
When he was 18, he said, cops were called to a fight, and he was
arrested for fleeing from police.
It was a wake-up call.
"I have the paperwork upstairs," he said. "I keep it as a reminder
that if I mess up again, that's where I'll end up. I have family in
jail, and I don't want to be like that."
His options, though, are limited, he said. He tried going to
technical college, but between school and working two jobs, it was too much.
"So I had to find another way, or it would be me in the street doing
illegal stuff to make enough money to support myself and my son,"
Ramirez said. "The military is an opportunity for us to get out of
here and better ourselves."
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