'RACIAL GENERATION GAP' GROWS HERE, STUDY SAYS LATINOS INHABITING UNTRADITIONAL AREAS.

Byline: Brad A. Greenberg Staff Writer

With the number of whites shrinking as immigrant populations soar, a ``racial generation gap'' is opening in Los Angeles and cities nationwide, a study released today says.

The report by The Brookings Institution said Los Angeles led all metropolitan areas and Riverside-San Bernardino ranked second in population gains by Latinos, Asians and blacks - increases attributed to higher birth rates among immigrants.

In addition, 30 percent of Latinos nationwide live in Los Angeles and New York, the study said. And metropolitan Los Angeles, which includes Long Beach and Santa Ana, has 5.6 million Latinos, about 43 percent of its total population.

``Immigrants from Asia and Latin America still see Los Angeles as immigrants from the '20s did - as a place to fulfill their economic dreams,'' said Tom Hogen-Esch, director of policy studies at the Center for Southern California Studies at California State University, Northridge.

The study was authored by William Frey, a demographer at the University of Michigan, and based on U.S. Census figures.

He found that Los Angeles County's population of 9.9 million grew by about 392,000 from 2000 to 2004. The population of Latinos and Asians increased by 356,200 and 102,100, respectively, while the number of whites decreased by about 84,000.

Other traditionally white parts of the U.S. also are seeing an influx of foreign-born immigrants who are fleeing metropolitan areas in search of jobs, affordable housing and opportunity, the study said.

The study found that 35 percent of the people leaving California in 2003 were white, compared with 78 percent during the '90s.

Areas that experienced the fastest population growths for blacks and Asians tended to be the fastest-growing cities in the country - Las Vegas, Phoenix and Orlando. The Brookings study also found record numbers of blacks are moving back to the South.

Experts noted that other cities will find themselves facing the same challenges as Los Angeles and California in providing education and public serves to young families of new immigrants.

``California's future, and Los Angeles' future, is going to depend very much on economics - and that means the education of immigrants,'' said Hans Johnson, a demographer for the Public Policy Institute of California.

For the Los Angeles Unified School District, ``it's about keeping them in school, keeping them connected,'' said Rowena Lagrosa, the district's executive officer of educational services.

The nation's second-largest school district has a dropout rate of about 33 percent, according to the state. Harvard University released a study last year pegging the dropout rate at 50 percent, while the district claims a 24 percent rate.

E. Richard Brown, director of UCLA's Center for Health Policy Research and head of the California Health Interview Survey, said that with growing low-wage populations - and a diminishing middle class - elected officials need to push reform that will make health care widely available.

``It doesn't take a genius to know that the system is already under tremendous strain,'' Hogen-Esch said. ``When you continue to add patients - and many of those are going to be uninsured - it is going to mean catastrophic consequences for health care in Los Angeles, particularly for the poor.''

While immigrants historically have had roots in major cities, they have spread family by family to growing metropolitan areas and suburbs - and they provide their relatives and friends abroad with a support network in the United States.

``The cost of housing is much lower in those places than Los Angeles. Wages, especially low-skill wages, are not much different,'' Johnson said.

Whites, though, are moving to the smaller communities in even greater numbers. St. George, Utah; Greeley, Colo., and Bend, Ore., saw the greatest white growth rates of metropolitan areas. New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, in that order, saw the largest decline.

``The middle class is finding L.A. a hard place to live,'' Frey said.

Brad A. Greenberg, [phone]

brad.greenberg(at)dailynews.com