ABSTRACT
The Los Angeles metropolitan area, with a current population of more than 15 million—about the size of the Netherlands—is sometimes called the "capital of the Pacific Rim" or, more derisively, the "capital of the Third World." Boosters are fond of pointing out that if the metropolitan area were a separate country, it would have the eleventh largest economy in the world (Security Pacific Bank 1988:8). But what is truly distinctive about Los Angeles is what is captured in the second epithet—the fact that over the past quarter century it has become the major destination of immigrants in the world. Since 1970, when most of the population was of European origin 1 ("Anglo," in the local parlance), nearly 3 million international immigrants, most from Latin America and Asia, have settled in the area. 2 By 1990, 27.3 percent of the population were foreign-bom. Just under half the population (48.6 percent) was of European origin and nearly one-third (32.4 percent) was of Latin American origin; 9.3 percent were of Asian origin, 7.1 percent were of African origin, and 1.8 percent were of Middle Eastern origin. 3 In Los Angeles County, the core of the metropolitan area, the shift to a non-European origin population was even more pronounced: Tire corresponding percentages were 39.3, 37.4, 10.8, 9.4, and 2.4; and one-third (32.7 percent) of the population was foreign-bom. Finally, 151 different languages were spoken in the five-county metropolitan area and 132 in Los Angeles County. 4
