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WEST VALLEY CITY — West Valley City recently became the first large Utah city with more residents who identify as minorities than those who identify as white, according to data from the U.S. Census.
Nearly 53 percent of the population in West Valley City identifies as Hispanic or a minority race, according to an analysis of Utah cities with populations over 65,000 by the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.
And that percentage might even be a little low since the census asks those of Middle Eastern descent to identify as white, said Pam Perlich, director of demographic research at the institute. West Valley also has the largest Latino population, with nearly 50,000 Hispanic residents making up 36.5 percent of the total population.
“We’ve been watching West Valley City as a bellwether for the rest of the state,” Perlich said. “Even with the small sample size and variability in the data, we feel really confident in saying that West Valley City is now our first major city within the metropolitan area to cross that threshold of being a minority majority.”
The city is a gateway place for new Americans, she added. West Valley has seen an influx of immigrants and first-generation Americans, and children of mixed heritage have become the fastest-growing population in the city. Those searching for a community of their own are also drawn to the diversity where they often find groups of ethnically similar people.
“We know from our studies of migration patterns that people tend to locate where they know they can have kind of a social safety net,” Perlich said. “Once there’s that cultural enclave, that ethnic enclave there, then the word will spread that there’s that resource. … And we see this throughout human history.”
As the city becomes this “enclave,” the distinction comes with both advantages and challenges, Perlich said, and West Valley will serve as an example for the rest of the state.
“It means they have access to more multicultural, multilingual, multiethnic populations than other places in the state,” she said. “(But) many of these populations struggle to establish an economic foothold in Utah, so there are issues, in some cases, of poverty.”
Utah used to be fairly homogeneous with a native-born, English-speaking population that was easier to educate, Perlich said. Now, there are 129 languages spoken in the homes of Utah’s schoolchildren.
“You bring all of these diverse voices and visions and aspirations together, and it’s a process of harmonizing and assimilating and accommodating,” she said.
For diverse populations, that process may involve struggles with language, education and affordable housing. While programs like affordable housing are important for those who struggle to find a socioeconomic foothold, they can also create residential segregation, Perlich said.
In Ogden — the next metropolis the institute expects to become a minority majority — the minority population is living in one area of the city.
“How much of that is self-selection to be around people who are similar — who you feel comfortable with — and how much of that is because of socioeconomic exclusion where you have zoning and ordinances that only allow particular kinds of housing,” Perlich said.
“That leads to all kinds of lively discussions about affordable housing and whether it should be dispersed in neighborhoods and whether it should be really the purview of one particular city to have that affordable housing.”
The unique aspect of West Valley, however, is that they’ve embraced the diversity and avoided serious residential segregation, she said. The city is home to the Utah Cultural Celebration Center and “really is the multicultural, multilingual and multiethnic jewel of Utah,” Perlich said.
Perlich believes that as other cities become more diverse, they should look to West Valley and remember that it “can't just be business as usual.”
“It just doesn’t work, because business as usual was built for the old Utah,” she said.
