[lit-ideas] on earticle on immigration
- From: eternitytime1@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 03 Mar 2006 15:19:17 -0500
Hi,
Here is one of the articles that I had thought I had read...thre was another
one which talked about the places where anti-immigration is the highest and
where 'white flight' is occurring--and it is NOT in the Midwestern areas...I
think parts of California (that hotbed of liberalism) were the highest (I
*think* even places like San Jose...or somewhere around there...)
Best,
Marlena
URL: http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=IMMIGRANTS-12-09-05
In Pittsburgh, the welcome mat is out to immigrants
By DAN FITZPATRICK
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
09-DEC-05
PITTSBURGH -- Pittsburgh, once a true melting pot, is now one of the least
international big cities in America, and that could foreshadow more problems
for an already slow local economy.
Only 3 percent, or 72,325, of the Pittsburgh-area population was foreign born
as of 2004, one of the lowest percentages of any major U.S. city. From 2000 to
2004, the region added 11,039 international migrants _ a mere 0.5 percent
increase, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
It was the lowest increase among the nation's top 25 metro areas, trailing many
similar-sized regions: Denver added 62,765, Seattle added 72,152, Minneapolis
added 49,455, and Cleveland added 16,361.
Even Cincinnati, which rivals Pittsburgh in the homogeneity department, added
slightly more immigrants (11,836) from 2000 to 2004.
The reason Pittsburgh's immigration rate is so alarming to followers of the
local economy is what it portends: slow growth.
As Pittsburgh's work force grows older and in need of replacement and as the
region continues to lose population _ the seven-county area dropped another 1.1
percent during 2000-2004 _ economic-development experts predict that an area
unattractive to immigrants will have a hard time filling positions if the
economy grows at even a marginal rate in the next 10 to 20 years. As of 2000,
foreigners accounted for 2.7 percent of the Pittsburgh-area work force, a rate
trailing all similar-sized cities.
Every year, about 3,000 people enter the labor pool in the Pittsburgh area _
not enough to keep pace with a 1 percent growth rate in jobs, about 10,000 jobs
a year. One Duquesne University study, in fact, predicted a shortage of workers
in the Pittsburgh area that could reach 125,000 by 2010 and 225,000 by 2020.
"At some point, you run out of more people who want to go into the labor
force," said Jerry Paytas, director of Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz
School Center for Economic Development. "We do need to bring people in."
The one bit of encouraging news is that Pittsburgh's foreign-born population is
moving upward _ if only slightly _ for the first time in more than half a
century.
After 1940, when the foreign-born population represented more than 12 percent
of the region's residents, the percentage dropped decade after decade until
hitting a low of 2.4 percent in 1990. By 2000, the number had inched up to 2.6
percent, the first increase in at least 50 years. The number moved up further
to 3 percent in 2004.
Reflecting an uptick in the numbers, the region's top universities, medical
centers and technology firms have done reasonably well attracting doctors,
engineers and other well-educated workers from India, China, South America and
elsewhere.
But there was no across-the-board growth in Asians, Hispanics and other
foreigners as there was in other big cities during the 1990s and the first
several years of the 21st century. And Pittsburgh's slight
foreign-born-population increase during the '90s, from 2.4 to 2.6 percent,
pales when compared with a city such as Miami-Fort Lauderdale, where more than
40 percent of the population is foreign-born, or San Diego (more than 20
percent) or even Atlanta (10 percent).
"Pittsburgh is the white-ist large metro area in the nation," said Christopher
Briem of the University Center for Social and Urban Research at the University
of Pittsburgh.
Foreigners tend to move to coastal areas where they have better access to home
countries and to places with established communities already in place.
Immigration in the United States also tends to be concentrated in certain areas
_ six states, including California and New York, are home to 68 percent of all
foreign-born residents despite being home to only 40 percent of the nation's
population. Nationally, more than half _ 51.7 percent _ of the foreign-born
population is from Latin America.
In the Pittsburgh area, Latin Americans make up 8.8 percent of the foreign-born
population. Much larger percentages belong to the Europeans, 47.5 percent, and
Asians, 35.1 percent.
Several local organizations are doing their best to increase the flow of
foreigners, believing that more immigrants could fill labor shortages in
various trades, including nursing and manufacturing, while also making
Pittsburgh a more vibrant, cosmopolitan city and increasing its political
clout.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.shns.com.)
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