Best Cities For International Residents To Move Without High Cost of Living?

[kimumingyu]

Originally Posted by As Above So Below...

Kimumingyu, what say you? What was your source?

Thanks for the follow-up. Not sure where you're getting your numbers (they look a bit off to me).

Mine are actually from the government (https://data.census.gov/) SELECTED SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS IN THE UNITED STATES -> RESIDENCE 1 YEAR AGO -> Abroad.

Even your numbers are backing up my claim, though. The top 10 has 6 traditional urban centers, 2 Sunbelt cities that maintain the some of the denses MSAs in the country, and then 2 low-density high-growth cities.

Again, the numbers back up the theory that yes, dense, urban centers attract new immigrants because of the low barrier to entry in regards to transportation. That's why the highest percentage of immigrants stay in the densest, most transit-connected segments of even lower-density cities.

[As Above So Below...]

Originally Posted by kimumingyu

Thanks for the follow-up. Not sure where you're getting your numbers (they look a bit off to me).

Mine are actually from the government (https://data.census.gov/) SELECTED SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS IN THE UNITED STATES -> RESIDENCE 1 YEAR AGO -> Abroad.

Even your numbers are backing up my claim, though. The top 10 has 6 traditional urban centers, 2 Sunbelt cities that maintain the some of the denses MSAs in the country, and then 2 low-density high-growth cities.

Again, the numbers back up the theory that yes, dense, urban centers attract new immigrants because of the low barrier to entry in regards to transportation. That's why the highest percentage of immigrants stay in the densest, most transit-connected segments of even lower-density cities.

So my source is the exact same as yours: data.census.gov. I even pointed out the table I used on that site. That said, how can you say my numbers look wrong if the source is the same? But Im willing to check out the table you looked at.

But my numbers are correct. Just look at GEOGRAPHICAL MOBILITY IN THE PAST YEAR IN THE UNITED STATES in the 2019 estimates. Thats the table I used. Were you looking at a different year perhaps? Ive gone through data.census.gov under the search "residence one year ago" with a fine tooth comb and I cannot find any numbers that dont match the ones I put (or are very close to them) in the 2019 search.

Seriously, I want to see what youre seeing but everything I put in shows my numbers to be correct on data.census.gov in 2019. If there is something different within those parameters, I want to know. Can you share the table number? Its on the bottom of the table description. For example B07007 is one of the ones I used.

[As Above So Below...]

So per data.census.gov, we can break this down even further.

Kimumingyu and I have been going back and forth on how many people move to metro areas from abroad. But what about immigrants who move from other parts of the US to specific metro areas? Data.census.gov provides the numbers. Here are immigrants that move from other parts of the US but are still foreign born:

New York City: 60,615
Washington DC: 32,467
Seattle/Tacoma: 28,211
Dallas/Fort Worth: 26,566
Los Angeles: 25,694
Miami/Fort Lauderdale: 22,631
Atlanta: 22,421
Houston: 22,200
Philadelphia: 20,007
Boston: 18,651
San Francisco: 17,339
San Jose: 15,933
Chicago: 15,556
Phoenix: 15,171
Las Vegas: 14,486
Orlando: 12,742
Charlotte: 11,584
Tampa: 11,397
Austin: 9,350
Portland: 8,859
San Diego: 8,566
Minneapolis/St. Paul: 7,812
Detroit: 7,442
San Antonio: 6,654
Baltimore: 5,487
Sacramento: 5,229
Riverside: 5,115
St. Louis: 3,917

[As Above So Below...]

And here are the number of people who moved from abroad to the specified metro areas in the last year that are FOREIGN BORN (I capitalize to emphasize, not because Im yelling!). The previous numbers I listed for those that moved from abroad include those that are American that moved back from abroad. These numbers are only immigrants. From data.census.gov, the table number is B07007, GEOGRAPHICAL MOBILITY IN THE PAST YEAR BY CITIZENSHIP STATUS FOR CURRENT RESIDENCE IN THE UNITED STATES.

Again, this is the true measure of how many immigrants move directly from their home country to the specified metro areas. American Natives who lived abroad and move home are excluded from these numbers.

New York City: 118,407
Miami/Fort Lauderdale: 70,746
Los Angeles: 66,121
Houston: 53,441
Washington DC: 51,664
Dallas/Fort Worth: 44,361
Boston: 42,470
Chicago: 36,958
San Francisco: 35,688
Seattle/Tacoma: 31,499
Atlanta: 26,323
San Jose: 24,116
Phoenix: 20,503
Orlando: 19,801
Philadelphia: 17,997
Tampa: 16,751
Riverside: 14,578
Detroit: 13,563
Minneapolis/St. Paul: 13,544
San Diego: 13,343
Sacramento: 12,106
Austin: 11,715
Charlotte: 11,427
Las Vegas: 11,289
San Antonio: 8,718
Portland: 8,313
Denver: 8,058
Baltimore: 7,670
St. Louis: 5,529
Salt Lake City: 4,606

These numbers should completely put to rest where immigrants move to directly from their home country in the United States. These numbers are directly from data.census.gov, represent only foreign born people who moved to the metro area in a one year period, and are from 2019.

[As Above So Below...]

And based on the immigrant numbers, below is the percentage of immigrants that moved from other parts of the US vs. abroad. For example, Atlanta has 54.0% next to it. That means 54.0% of foreign born immigrants that moved to Atlanta in the year before 2019 moved from other parts of the US and not abroad. This means the ones with the lowest percentage have the highest concentration of foreign born immigrants moving directly from their home country.

Orlando: 60.8%
Las Vegas: 56.2%
Denver: 56.0%
Atlanta: 54.0%
Philadelphia: 52.6%
Portland: 51.8%
Charlotte: 50.3%
Seattle/Tacoma: 47.2%
Austin: 44.4%
Phoenix: 42.6%
San Antonio: 42.3%
St. Louis: 41.5%
Baltimore: 40.8%
Tampa: 40.5%
San Diego: 39.1%
San Jose: 38.9%
Washington DC: 38.6%
Dallas/Fort Worth: 37.5%
Minneapolis/St. Paul: 35.7%
Detroit: 35.4%
Salt Lake City: 34.9%
New York City: 33.8%
San Francisco: 32.7%
Boston: 30.5%
Sacramento: 30.4%
Chicago: 29.6%
Houston: 29.3%
Los Angeles: 27.9%
Riverside: 25.9%
Miami/Fort Lauderdale: 24.1%

So we can see from these numbers that Miami, LA, Riverside, Houston, and Chicago had the highest percentages of immigrants moving directly from their home to the US vs. their immigrant growth as a whole. Orlando, Las Vegas, Denver, Atlanta, and Philadelphia, depended on foreign born immigrants moving from other parts of the US for their immigrant growth.