Fascinating Immigration Report (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington: construction jobs, wage, live in)

[pman]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

It's hard to reconcile those meager numbers with my daily experiences in Pittsburgh .

I'd guess those numbers are mostly in the city

[Craziaskowboi]

I bet the counties outside of Allegheny County have virtually zero foreign-born.

[bradjl2009]

With all the talk of Pittsburgh's labor force population being at an all time high, it would be interesting to see who these people are that are increasing the labor force and if they are immigrants or not. Considering the jobs that are being created here, I'm guessing most of the labor force increase are people US-born or highly skilled foreign labor. In my opinion however, I don't think the immigrant population of the US will rise that fast during the 2010s due to the economy, a new higher quality of life in places like China and Mexico (I know they're still not great but their economy is growing a lot faster than ours), and the political climate in this country.

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by Gnutella

I bet the counties outside of Allegheny County have virtually zero foreign-born.

There are foreign born people outside of Allegheny County, especially in places like Cranberry and Peters Twp I'd imagine. Foreign born people don't always have to look or act "different" than native born people to not be born here.

[ex-burgher]

In Charlotte, one of the highest ranked, there are many neighborhoods that are 90% Hispanic. I'm sure the influx of Hispanics over the last 30 years plays the biggest role in the big numbers in other cities. Pittsburgh just hasn't taken part in this trend.

[Craziaskowboi]

Originally Posted by bradjl2009

There are foreign born people outside of Allegheny County, especially in places like Cranberry and Peters Twp I'd imagine. Foreign born people don't always have to look or act "different" than native born people to not be born here.

I said virtually zero, not zero. And Cranberry, Peters and Murrysville would likely be where most of them would be outside of Allegheny County.

[pman]

A lot of the Mexican immigrants in Philly are from a couple of towns....ones that have been largely unimproved and the drug war has made them Unsafe If high end jobs are being created one can.be sure service sector jobs will follow. I wouldnt be surprised of Pittsburgh's rate normalized.

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by pman

A lot of the Mexican immigrants in Philly are from a couple of towns....ones that have been largely unimproved and the drug war has made them Unsafe If high end jobs are being created one can.be sure service sector jobs will follow. I wouldnt be surprised of Pittsburgh's rate normalized.

Personally I'm not sure if the service sector will grow quickly in the foreseeable future in Pittsburgh. Much of the service sector here was established in the 80's or before and still remains when the population was higher. Some of it has closed or moved into the areas where more people are now (Cranberry) but a lot of it is still there. By looking at demand for new retail, I don't see much new demand being created or a large scale increase in it due to the lack luster performance of Pittsburgh Mills, and it seems when new retail opens anywhere in the area, old retail places close up or move into the new retail leaving us with just about the same amount of retail services. Of course, Pittsburgh could be entering the first long term increase its had in population in a long time so old trends with how things went may not be the same in a few years.

Edit: I also forgot to add before that with how I think immigration to the US is likely to slow (that the US won't see the large growth it has in immigration up until 2007/08) that birth rates in many developing countries have started to fall a bit in the past 10 years. While this may not mean much now, a lower birth rate will mean an improved quality of life slowly over time in those countries and will also mean less future people to immigrate possibly in time.

[pman]

I generally agree that overall rates won't go up but I do think that Pittsburgh will cease to be an outlier. I think the service sector, particularly restaurant jobs, will see growth..especially in the city which is generally friendlier to immigrants (since you can live cheaply and get to work without a car). although Philadelphia seems to be drawing directly from the dominican (countryside), mexico, (most hispanics there still come from PR who are not foreign born), and various asian countries the allentown, reading, and to a lesser extent lancaster have begun to draw from nyc where washington heights gentrification is pricing out dominicans. I did find it interesting that immigrant growth in Pittsburgh is coming from the american southwest. if nothing else, hopefully decent mexican food will be easier to get.

[BrianTH]

If the crash in net Hispanic immigration to the United States continues, then even if Pittsburgh's share of that immigration normalizes, it will remain way behind most other large U.S. metros in terms of Hispanic-heritage population percentages, because they will have the legacy of their shares from the now-past Hispanic immigration wave and Pittsburgh won't.

On the other hand, as I have noted before, U.S. births have taken over from net immigration in terms of contributions to the U.S. Hispanic-heritage population. That does create another possible source for increasing Pittsburgh's Hispanic-heritage population percentages, namely domestic migration of native-born people with at least some Hispanic ancestry, and in fact it looks like Pittsburgh is entering a period of increased domestic migration churn.

But those native-born people with Hispanic ancestry will be increasingly assimilated, only partially Hispanic-heritage, and so on. Which is fine, but the impact on the local cultural mix will be muted as a result.