Asia-burgh

[Evergrey]

Squirrel Hill center offers hand to arriving Bhutanese | TribLIVE

Squirrel Hill center offers hand to arriving Bhutanese



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The Squirrel Hill Health Center, which provides a variety of services to refugees, has helped 741 Bhutanese immigrants over the past two years, said Susan Kalson, CEO of the health center.

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[BrianTH]

Relevant article:

Pittsburgh sees Asian population increase - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

[pman]

Asians now lead Latinos in annual immigration
an immigration trend that favors Pittsburgh

[BrianTH]

I'm not entirely sure that national trend actually favors Pittsburgh, since it is more driven by a crash in Latino immigration than a boom in Asian immigration:

In 2000, about 1.2 million Latinos entered the United States, compared with 400,000 Asians. By 2009, the groups were tied at about 400,000 each.

Nonetheless, it is certainly a good thing for Pittsburgh that we are getting a growing piece of Asian immigration.

[pman]

[LEFT]Although many Asians come to Pittsburgh for the universities -- nearly 81 percent of Carnegie Mellon's international students last year were Asian -- those who stay in the country don't always choose to live in Pittsburgh. Zipei Tu came from China in 2006 to study at CMU, but he was the only one in his class to remain after graduating. Mr. Tu, who works in international sales for an information technology firm, said his friends left for San Francisco, New York and Washington, D.C. He added that the "temporary" population of Chinese immigrants in Pittsburgh -- mostly students -- is greater than the permanent population.
"Let me put it frankly," he said. "I don't think people here are as open as in other areas."

Read more: Pittsburgh sees Asian population increase - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette[/LEFT]

[SolitaryThrush]

As was said earlier in the thread, a lot of those affiliated with universities are here short-term: students, post-docs and visiting faculty on one- or two-year contracts, and their spouses. Top institutions like CMU and UPMC, and companies like Google, are reasons why Pittsburgh can attract some of the best, but openness and tolerance will be big issues, too, in keeping them and in not scaring them off to another part of the country. Pittsburgh does pretty well for a mid-sized city not on one of the coasts, and the example in the article about refusing to heat the child's lunch is mild compared to some of the idiocy I see and hear directed toward Asians on a regular basis. But that's just because 70% of people are thoughtless idiots 70% of the time.

If Pittsburgh---and the US, for that matter---really wants a "brain gain", it needs to make it easier for the best to stay here. For all the bellyaching about immigrants, and foreigners coming here and stealing jobs, and *gasp* having the census form written in different languages, it's actually quite difficult for someone to get settled here in the US . . . and harder for their families who can't easily integrate into American life. For now, in spite of all its problems, the country can still attract some of the world's best in certain fields. That won't always be the case if it doesn't shape up soon.