if your not from Pittsburgh you never fit in? (Mexico: colleges, calculation)

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Hopes

Most Pittsburghers are not interested in Pittsburgh having a large percentage of uneducated immigrants. (Not interested, not interesting. )

I disagree with this a bit--I think more international immigrants, regardless of educational attainment, would indeed continue to make the cultural mix of Pittsburgh a bit more interesting. But precisely because highly-educated immigrants are just as capable of having this effect, as noted before I would prefer to see the international immigration rate go up a bit while at the same time maintaining the same disproportionate weighting to higher-educated immigrants.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by Katiana

(As clairemarie stated, and you, Brian, provided statistics for, it is not true that Pittsburgh has a huge number of highly educated immingrants.)

I guess you missed what Brian's data showed. Other areas of the country have a larger percentage of uneducated/unskilled immigrants. Pittsburgh's educated immigrants are a higher percent than the rest of the country because Pittsburgh doesn't attract many uneducated/unskilled immigrants. In other words, out of the immigrants in Pittsburgh, a larger percentage of those immigrants are educated than uneducated immigrants. YOU are thinking of the percentage compared to overall population. We're pointing out that Pittsburgh's immigrants are generally highly educated compared to uneducated/unskilled immigrants.

[BrianTH]

I don't think it is stereotyping or racist to note which job fields have more positions for relatively low-skilled workers. I also don't think it is stereotyping or racist, or necessarily echoing union talking points, to note that like anything else in economics, labor markets are subject to the forces of supply and demand. Accordingly, if you don't have growing demand in the labor markets for low-skilled workers, a large influx of new low-skilled workers is going to lead to an oversupply in those markets, which will lead to falling prices (aka wages) and higher unemployment rates for low-skilled workers.

Again, that is just basic economics. And indeed, I hope I have made it clear in prior comments that this analysis applies just as much to domestic migrants as international immigrants. So it really has nothing in particular to do with race or country of origin, just the cold forces of supply and demand.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I disagree with this a bit--I think more international immigrants, regardless of educational attainment, would indeed continue to make the cultural mix of Pittsburgh a bit more interesting. But precisely because highly-educated immigrants are just as capable of having this effect, as noted before I would prefer to see the international immigration rate go up a bit while at the same time maintaining the same disproportionate weighting to higher-educated immigrants.

Than you agree with me. Notice that my post you quoted said 'uneducated' immigrants. We really don't need a large number of those immigrants in Pittsburgh since we have a strong working class. That's what I meant by Pittsburghers not being interested. More cultural blend is nice, but not to the point that the foreign culture takes over as the Hispanic cuture does in California. I'm not interested in Pittsburgh becoming like California. When I want that experience, I go on vacation. We'll get a more diverse culture from educated immigrants because they tend to come from many countries, whereas uneducated immigrants tend to form large settlements that predominately take over an area.

[Katiana]

Pittsburgh does not have a "large percentage" of immigrants of any kind, compared to other cities.

Omaha, Nebraska, which is larger than Pittsburgh, has 6.6% foreign-born residents. That's almost twice as many as Pittsburgh. I don't know where Brian found his education numbers, I'd be interested in looking at other cities' stats on that as well.

[claremarie]

"In other words, out of the immigrants in Pittsburgh, a larger percentage of those immigrants are educated than uneducated immigrants. YOU are thinking of the percentage compared to overall population."

Or, in other words, out of the TINY percentage of Pittsburgh residents who are foreign-born, a larger percentage are highly educated than in other parts of the country.
My guess is that a large chunk of those highly educated immigrants are working at one of the local universities or in the medical field. What Pittsburgh seems to lack are highly motivated (whether or not highly educated) immigrant entrepreneurs who will start the sort of small businesses that provide employment for a lot of other people, both natives and immigrants.

[Tiger Beer]

Sorry, actually I was quoted as 'anti-immigrant'. I'm actually VERY pro-immigrant. I wish Pittsburgh had A LOT more multi-ethnic immigrants - I'd love that actually.

I just find it fascinating that it doesn't. Generally speaking, in CA & NY (two other states I lived), in the service industry and everything else, it isn't generally multi-ethnic, it is just entirely all Spanish-speakers. Not really multi-ethnic at all. I don't mind Spanish speakers at all either. I lived in a couple spanish-speaking countries and speak intermediate Spanish.

I guess what I really meant to say, it is interesting that there are cities in America, where everyone who serves you pizza, and does everything else in every business you go to, isn't a Spanish-speaker from Mexico. Not that I mind that at all.

But I do have one question. Why is it IMPOSSIBLE for an American to emigrate to Mexico? For example the Miss World Beauty Pageant held in Mexico City, Miss USA was booed, because the U.S. was questioning the 30+ million illegal Mexicans and whether they should get amnesty or not. But as an American, I can never ever emigrate there, etc.

Not just Mexico. But I also can't go to China or Korea or pretty much any other country that has high number of immigrants in the U.S., but I could never live in their country. (I lived in Korea for 8 years, and even if you marry a Korean, you're rights are still very limited, and you're still a 'foreigner' forever type of thing).

I don't mind any of this...I"m still pro-immigration into the U.S. I just wish that the rest of the world was recipricol to us as we are to them. For the record, I'm pro-immigration, and I wish Pittsburgh had a large MULTI-ETHNIC immigration pattern.

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I don't think it is stereotyping or racist to note which job fields have more positions for relatively low-skilled workers. I also don't think it is stereotyping or racist, or necessarily echoing union talking points, to note that like anything else in economics, labor markets are subject to the forces of supply and demand. Accordingly, if you don't have growing demand in the labor markets for low-skilled workers, a large influx of new low-skilled workers is going to lead to an oversupply in those markets, which will lead to falling prices (aka wages) and higher unemployment rates for low-skilled workers.

Again, that is just basic economics. And indeed, I hope I have made it clear in prior comments that this analysis applies just as much to domestic migrants as international immigrants. So it really has nothing in particular to do with race or country of origin, just the cold forces of supply and demand.

It is very stereotypical to assume that immigrants are most suited for such jobs as landscaping, housecleaning and child care. Since most unskilled immigrants are from Mexico and other central American countries, there is an element of racism there, too.

The concern about depressing wages b/c someone is willing to do it for less is definitely labor-union talk. If someone will do the job for less, that's a matter between employer and employee (as long as they are paying minimum wage).

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by Katiana

Omaha, Nebraska, which is larger than Pittsburgh, has 6.6% foreign-born residents. That's almost twice as many as Pittsburgh.

You're still missing the point. We're talking about the percentage of educated immigrants among the total immigrants. Therefore, the percentage of immigrants to the general popualtion is irrelevant.

Originally Posted by Katiana

I don't know where Brian found his education numbers, I'd be interested in looking at other cities' stats on that as well.

If you're interested in it, look it up like he did when he was interested in knowing.

[lifepgh2op]

All completely off the topic anyway!