Why didn't Baltimore and Washington receive the same migrants that the other northeastern cities got?

[BajanYankee]

We know that Baltimore didn't industrialize on the same scale as NYC, Philly and Boston.

The metropolises of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and, to a lesser extent, Baltimore, led the industrial expansion after 1820, because they were the greatest concentrated markets, they had the most capital, and their wholesalers provided access to subregional and regional markets outside the metropolises.

The Roots of American Industrialization, 1790-1860

Why Baltimore led "to a lesser extent" is a good question. If you look at Table 2 in the link, New York had 7.4% of all manufacturing jobs in the U.S. in 1840, Philadelphia had 6.7% and Boston had 7.1%. Baltimore only had 2.3%. So that's one explanation. It still doesn't explain why ethnic whites account for a much smaller percentage of the non-hispanic white population though.

I think one factor is that Baltimore already had a large supply of cheap (or free) labor in the form of manumitted blacks (and their descendants). In 1890, Baltimore had a black population of 67,104. Philadelphia, which was 2.5 times the size of Baltimore, had a black population of only 39,371. Baltimore had a lot of blacks (some manumits, others term slaves or indentureds) working in industry prior to the Civil War. This may have lessened the need for immigrant labor.

[BajanYankee]

Some numbers for Irish, Italian, Jewish and Polish ancestry by metro.

Boston:

1,676,395
48.94% of non-Hispanic Whites
36.73% of MSA

New York:

5,702,731
61.76% of non-Hispanic Whites
30.13% of MSA

Philadelphia:

1,949,940
50.32% of non-Hispanic Whites
32.67% of MSA

Baltimore:

590,733
36.28% of non-Hispanic Whites
21.75% of MSA

Washington, DC:

876,994
32.25% of non-Hispanic Whites
15.65% of MSA

[LINative]

Originally Posted by muppethammer26

Every time I go to these places, I don't see that much ethnic blacks and whites, including West Indians, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Irish, Italians, etc. Just regular blacks and whites. Unlike Wilmington, Philadelphia, New York, Hartford, Springfield, Providence and Boston. Even though the Northeastern Megalopolis runs from Boston to Washington and all of the cities are economically tied to each other. Plus each ancestry group is usually 0 to 5 percent in Baltimore and Washington. Is there a reason for this?

Originally Posted by RichieTrick

Because Baltimore and DC are southern cities.

If you are talking historically like in the 1800s, I think Richie is on to something.

Before the Civil War, Baltimore and DC were in slave territory and there was not as much demand for cheap labor. Thus the Irish coming over in the 1840s and 1850s looked mostly elsewhere. After the Civil War there remained a huge labor pool of cheap labor in Maryland, many poor black former slaves but also some poor Appalachian whites, so most immigrants looked elsewhere.

[$mk8795]

Originally Posted by muppethammer26

Every time I go to these places, I don't see that much ethnic blacks and whites, including West Indians, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Irish, Italians, etc. Just regular blacks and whites. Unlike Wilmington, Philadelphia, New York, Hartford, Springfield, Providence and Boston. Even though the Northeastern Megalopolis runs from Boston to Washington and all of the cities are economically tied to each other. Plus each ancestry group is usually 0 to 5 percent in Baltimore and Washington. Is there a reason for this?

Maryland is a Southern State and DC is a Southern City......

[muppethammer26]

Originally Posted by BajanYankee

Some numbers for Irish, Italian, Jewish and Polish ancestry by metro.

Boston:

1,676,395
48.94% of non-Hispanic Whites
36.73% of MSA

New York:

5,702,731
61.76% of non-Hispanic Whites
30.13% of MSA

Philadelphia:

1,949,940
50.32% of non-Hispanic Whites
32.67% of MSA

Baltimore:

590,733
36.28% of non-Hispanic Whites
21.75% of MSA

Washington, DC:

876,994
32.25% of non-Hispanic Whites
15.65% of MSA

You forgot about Hartford and Providence. These 2 cities fill the big gap that you created between New York and Boston. These 2 cities also received some immigration from around the world throughout history as well.

[BeauCharles]

Baltimore has always had a lot of "ethnic" whites. Greeks, Polish, Italians, Irish, Germans, Jews. There was also a great deal of port activity, steel making and food processing. It did get a lot of Southern whites as well, but they just added to the mix. DC is a different story, but Baltimore definitely fits the old European immigrant pattern.

[King of Kensington]

Because a century ago southern Italians didn't have access to City-Data to tell them that Baltimore and Washington are Northeastern cities just like New York, Philadelphia and Boston.

[Cowboys fan in Houston]

DC gets more immigrants than any other metro area in the US other than NYC, LA, and Miami. It's virtually tied with the Bay Area. It gets many more immigrants than Philly or Boston.