It didn’t take Blanca Cano long to feel at home 17 years ago when she arrived in Garden City.

“Everywhere I went,” the Mexican-born Cano said, “somebody spoke Spanish.”

And, Cano said, that’s more the case than ever. Businesses around Garden City display signs in English and Spanish.

“Over here, being bilingual pays off — in most of the jobs, they prefer someone bilingual,” Cano said. “It’s kind of a blessing.”

The U.S. Census Bureau reported earlier this month that the number of Kansas residents born outside the United States more than doubled during the 1990s — driven largely by the growth in three southwestern counties that are home to meatpacking plants.

Finney, Ford and Seward counties received special attention in the census report. They were three of just 61 counties in the nation where more than 20 percent of the population had been born in a country other than the United States.

That came as no surprise to Kansas experts.

“The engine that drives the economy of southwest Kansas is meatpacking, and the work force is predominantly immigrant,” said Don Stull, a Kansas University anthropology professor who recently published “Slaughterhouse Blues,” a history of the meatpacking industry.

And those workers have changed the culture of the region.

“It’s brought to the surface a much more diverse cultural and linguistic population,” Stull said. “That has real consequences for education, law enforcement and the provision of social services — but it also makes for a much more cosmopolitan, much more vibrant community.”

The numbers

The number of foreign-born residents in Kansas grew relatively quickly during the 1990s.

Kansas was home to 62,840 foreign-born residents in 1990, just 2.5 percent of the population. That grew to 134,735 in 2000, 5 percent of the population. Douglas County was home to 5,168 foreign-born residents, 5.2 percent of its population.

The state experienced a faster growth rate than the rest of the country, but still had a relatively small proportion of immigrants. Nationally, foreign-born residents made up 11.1 percent of the population.

But in and around Kansas’ meatpacking counties, the influx of immigrants provided nearly all the population growth.

Finney County, for example, grew by 7,453 residents during the 1990s. The vast majority of that increase — 5,935 residents — was born outside the United States.

In Lyon County, home to Emporia’s IBP meatpacking plant, the total population grew by 1,203 residents. But the foreign-born population grew by 2,019. In other words, the American-born population of the county shrank by 816 residents during the decade.

A similar picture exists in Seward County, which grew by 3,767 residents during the decade; the foreign-born population grew by 4,028.

“For any community to thrive and remain healthy, it needs to grow,” said Mary Regan of the Finney County Historical Society and Museum in Garden City. “I think the additional people, with their diverse backgrounds, has been good in that regard.”

Effects

Those additional people, in many cases, also need help.

Cano now works as a “migrant recruiter” for the Garden City school district. She steers newly arrived children to schools, and their families to social service agencies, some of which — like United Methodist Mexican-American Ministries — have sprung up specifically to serve the new residents.

“Their needs are tremendous,” Cano said of the immigrant population. “They need clothes and furniture to a place to stay.”

There are blessings, as well.

Linda Trujillo, director of supplemental services for Garden City public schools, said the town has become more cosmopolitan. Even the grocery stores carry a wider variety of fruits and vegetables, she said.

“I tell people we are Garden City, America. We are not like most Kansas cities that you know of,” she said. “It makes us look more like the East and West Coasts.”

And Lydia Gonzales, of Garden City’s League of United Latin American Citizens, said descendants of earlier generations of Latino immigrants had been able to reconnect with their heritage.

Some Mexican-Americans in Garden City, she said, had to learn Spanish to communicate with newcomers — a far cry from earlier generations when children of immigrants lost their native language because Spanish-speaking was officially discouraged.

“I think people find out the more bilingual they are, the more money they make,” Gonzales said.

In turn, older generations are able to help out the newcomers. And, Gonzales said, they’re able to provide a vision of a successful life in America.

“We have doctors, we have lawyers, we have nurses. And we show them off,” she said. “The role models are very, very important. And we have lots of them in Garden City.”