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I have spend alot of time recently in LA and NYC. I am shocked how many of the people in both Cities are from a foreign country and speaking a different language. LA and the rest of Southern California seems to be really struggling with both legal and illegal immigration. While New York City's immigration seems to be better. The immigrants are more varied and not dominated by people from Latin America. NYC seems to thrive on immigrants while LA is choking. Agree?
I've never been to NYC, so I can't say. But from what I've seen LA doesn't have an immigrant problem. LA has an illegal alien problem. They're two separate and distinct issues. Take away the illegals in LA and LA is probably going to be a fairly nice place to raise a family. Crime would be much lower, the schools would perform better, housing/rentals would be cheaper, even the excessive demand for services like water, sewer, power, traffic would all improve.
I would guess LA, being so close to Mexico, has absolutely no control over it's population. The city is seeing huge numbers of low skill workers flood into the city unchecked while high skilled workers have been leaving the city and moving out of state. The influx of illegals has caused crime to soar, gang activity soars, the city is burdened with providing services to millions that really don't contribute in any meaningful way. Plus, add in California's Proposition 13, which drastically reduces the amount of property tax revenue that the city/county can collect, and you have not only quite a mess but a situation that's only going to get worse.
You're right about the difference in the immigrants from coast to coast. The ones in the East are more likely to have some kind of education in their own country and be here to work, make decent money, marry, support their wife, start a family, and all that. Plus they're from more different parts of the world and they're easier to find if you want to meet them. I'm not saying that the immigrants in California purposely came here to live off "the system" especially as that "system" gives them almost nothing; that just seems to be the end result. I'm seeing one difference; the immigrants over here seem to want to marry someone to support them (the men, I mean) whereas the ones in the East are more likely to be of decent upbringings that say that they marry someone THEY can support. There's a big difference between East and West right there.
Meaning that immigrant men out West want to marry a woman who can and would be willing to support her husband; back East things are more the way they should be with immigrant men wanting to marry someone they can support like they're supposed to.
Last edited by pkennedy1990; 08-03-2010 at 10:36 PM..
Reason: clarification
We are inundated with illegals, mostly from Mexico and Latin countries. But we also have illegals from many other countries. They often come legally, then overstay their visas.
If we need immigrants we need a good mix of immigrants, we certainly don't need them all coming from just one country or culture.
Still - we like all other countries in the world have immigration laws for a reason. Immigration can't be a free-for-all, in order to make it fair - fair both for the immigrants and for the American people, especially American workers, there has to be some kind of orderly process, some rules and regulations over immigration.
But yes - it's only good when it's a healthy VARIETY.
If we need immigrants we need a good mix of immigrants, we certainly don't need them all coming from just one country or culture.
Still - we like all other countries in the world have immigration laws for a reason. Immigration can't be a free-for-all, in order to make it fair - fair both for the immigrants and for the American people, especially American workers, there has to be some kind of orderly process, some rules and regulations over immigration.
But yes - it's only good when it's a healthy VARIETY.
I totally agree with you. If we are to retain our nation's identifying culture and society immigrants need to come from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and countries. Not just one so that they end up changing the demographics of this country's main society and above all immigration must be orderly and within our laws in place.
The nature of the immigration is different. NYC is very much an international city both in terms of corporations based there (and in the tri-state region) and its financial markets. A great many immigrants are 1) legal and 2) well educated. Thus they contribute to the economic well being of the city rather than being a drain on it.
NYC also attracts a great many more foreign tourists than does LA.
Location: Oklahoma(formerly SoCalif) Originally Mich,
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jaggy001
The nature of the immigration is different. NYC is very much an international city both in terms of corporations based there (and in the tri-state region) and its financial markets. A great many immigrants are 1) legal and 2) well educated. Thus they contribute to the economic well being of the city rather than being a drain on it.
NYC also attracts a great many more foreign tourists than does LA.
LA's starting to look like Mexico, that's why there;s less tourism.
LA's starting to look like Mexico, that's why there;s less tourism.
I spent 10 years in the NYC area (White Plains) and two years working in SoCal. Quite honestly, LA just doesn't compare favorably to NYC in any area except, perhaps, the beaches.
Location: Oklahoma(formerly SoCalif) Originally Mich,
13,387 posts, read 19,340,468 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jaggy001
I spent 10 years in the NYC area (White Plains) and two years working in SoCal. Quite honestly, LA just doesn't compare favorably to NYC in any area except, perhaps, the beaches.
NYC is surrounded by beaches. It's practcally an Island.
I've never been to NYC, but I wasn't comparing LA to NYC. I was telling it the way it is. I lived in So, California for 36 years.
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