It seems that officials in the cradle of the “New Latino South”, Georgia, are looking to make sure too many people don’t occupy a single dwelling. Too many immigrants, that is. In reponse to complaints about overcrowded homes in the state, Georgia officials are inspecting dwellings housing numerous Latino immigrants:

In Cobb County, housing code officers say they need more stringent regulations to handle a growing number of complaints about overcrowded homes. Last week, county zoning officials proposed an ordinance to reduce the number of unrelated people who can live together under one roof from six to four.

They say it’s all about safety, while pro-immigrant activists claim it’s merely a thinly-veiled attempt to take the issue of illegal immigration into their own hands — at the local level:

“Counties and cities are saying, if the federal government doesn’t do anything about [illegal immigration], we’ll do it a different way, and housing is one thing they’re looking at,” says Edgar Rivera, a Hispanic activist in Fairfax, Va. “What they’re doing is establishing laws that are specific to Hispanic people.”

I recently encountered this debate in Spain. I overheard a conversation between Spaniards about a South American family living in an apartment building I was visiting. Neighbors complained, they said, not because of the presence of a Latino family in the building, but the fact there were “so many of them”. My question was: what does one expect a family that’s recently arrived to a country to do? If they are immigrating it’s because the conditions in their country of origin are less than optimal. They are POOR. Sure, maybe it would be great for everyone to have their own room a not have abuelita camping out in the living room but hell, that’s life, and that’s family. Deal with it.

Via / The Christian Science Monitor