Are there many illegal immigrants in PIttsburgh? (Baldwin, Whitehall: homes, landscaping)

[greg42]

Originally Posted by ditchdigger

After reading some of the posts in this thread it certainly seems like I'm supposed to know, now doesn't it?

It does, doesn't it? I don't know how you would tell for sure. All I know is there are generally a bunch of hypocrites out there who say "Get these illegals out of here" except for the ones that cut their own grass or work on their own house for dirt cheap.

BTW paying someone extra low wages (or even not so low wages) under the table still creates a different type of illegal worker even if their eligibility to work in the country (visa, citizenship, whatever) is legit.

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by ditchdigger

I think it's interesting that members from other areas of the country are responding to a thread in the Pittsburgh forum. Do you suppose they lurk here all the time, and just never find anything more interesting to respond to?

I'm an occassional Pittsburgh viewer myself...so, I'm just reading about Pittsburgh in general.

But, key words like 'immigration' are what certain types search for in the search engines. Whenever I see any thread with unusual posters coming from all around, you can pretty much count on that being the reason.

[Katarina Witt]

The OP is not from Pittsburgh and doesn't give any indication she intends to move there. She also hasn't been back. Just sayin'.

[Hopes]

She is planning to move here next year. She starts lots of threads without re-posting, which is puzzling. Fortunately, most of her thread topics are very mild.

[Raven1976]

Originally Posted by Katiana

The OP is not from Pittsburgh and doesn't give any indication she intends to move there. She also hasn't been back. Just sayin'.

YEah Im visiting in July to investigate Pittsburgh so I have lots of questions

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by Raven1976

YEah Im visiting in July to investigate Pittsburgh so I have lots of questions

Just a hint. People really do like hearing feedback from thread starters.

You haven't commented once on what we've shared, not even a mere "thank you" for our time and effort.

If you continue like this, people might stop answering your questions eventually.

[gg]

Originally Posted by ditchdigger

As to the original question, until somebody comes up with some sort of visual method of discerning "legal" from "illegal", I probably won't know. Besides examples like the Canadian mentioned above, who probably looks just as "American" as I do (whatever that is) how am I to tell? I guess if I see somebody with Latin appearing features shopping in Walmart, I could demand to see their green card or a birth certificate, but more often than not, that would probably feel a little awkward...

I really didn't read this thread until now. I was thinking the same thing. I mean, how the heck am I going to know if someone is legal or illegal? They speak Spanish? Yeah, so what? If they are amongst other Spanish speakers and it is their first language, who cares?

The question would be about impossible to answer for most everyone here.

[dorinbng]

so it was told to me how pittsburgh came to have no hispanic population. as they migrated north to eastern pa/ny (some times in eastern pa like allentown are so dense the mcdonalds menus are spanish)..you come to 2 options to go west.

1. i80 which is unmonitored , toll free interstate that leads to cleveland, detroit, chicago, some majorly populated cities not all that far.

2. 76, which is a monitored(not desirable i immagine if you are in a van full of illegals) toll road(20+ bucks to get across the state) and pretty much leads to pittsburgh and then not much in way of large cities, unless you want to start heading back southwest.

so the popular choice is/was #1. also a major population surge for puerto ricans on the mainland were in the late 70's when pittsburgh was at its bleakest, a dying city. hardly a place to aim for if you want industrial type jobs, everyone was leaving because there were none.

is it true, i don't really know but it made sense at the time i was told.

[BrianTH]

I don't think it had anything to do with roads. Pittsburgh just had relatively little work of the relevant sorts available, and not much of an existing Hispanic population to build on.

[jimmyev]

I've noticed a marked increase in low-wage Hispanic workers, both in the construction industry and the food service industry, in the past year. It's still a very small fragment considering that three years ago there were virtually none. I think it's happening as the economy here is stable plus it's a natural outgrowth of Texans relocating here for Marcellus Shale.