Asia-burgh (Pittsburgh, Scott Township, Duquesne: universities, living, cost of living)

[BrianTH]

Data on new permanent residents in the Pittsburgh area, courtesy of Chris Briem:

Nullspace: Permanent Papers for Pittsburghers

Immigration from Asia/Oceania has boomed in the last three years. Obviously that's a huge (and in my view very welcome) potential source of new population for the region.

[Aqua Teen Carl]

I think Bollywoodburgh would be the most accurate term.

[Craziaskowboi]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Data on new permanent residents in the Pittsburgh area, courtesy of Chris Briem:

Nullspace: Permanent Papers for Pittsburghers

Immigration from Asia/Oceania has boomed in the last three years. Obviously that's a huge (and in my view very welcome) potential source of new population for the region.

Clearly, Pittsburgh is not welcoming of diversity.

[bradjl2009]

Wow interesting. I wonder why Asians are the only group that's seeing such a large increase and over the past 3 years while people from every other part of the world isn't much different at all (with declines in all groups compared to 2006 besides Africans). If the amount of people coming here from Asia stayed constant, it looks like we'd actually be admitting fewer permanent residents than a few years ago.

[sskink]

Originally Posted by bradjl2009

Wow interesting. I wonder why Asians are the only group that's seeing such a large increase and over the past 3 years while people from every other part of the world isn't much different at all (with declines in all groups compared to 2006 besides Africans).

I'd suggest that it's strong universities, a lot of tech and medical jobs, entrepreneurial opportunities, cost of living and public relations. You'd like to think those same factors would attract people worldwide at the same rate, but apparently that's not the case. I'm not sure Pittsburgh even markets itself to anywhere other than Europe and Asia.

[Goinback2011]

The answer to the 'why' is: the H1B visa. Companies get cheap labor.

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by Goinback2011

The answer to the 'why' is: the H1B visa. Companies get cheap labor.

That can be really expensive actually. My one professor at Duquesne told us to get this one econ professor from Russia, they had to fill out a massive amount of paper work, have him agree not to go anywhere else 5 years, and spend $10,000 on a lawyer.

[Goinback2011]

There are huge numbers of Asians in Florida working in IT. I personally witnessed one consulting firm - run by Indians - who imported inexperienced Indian workers with H1B visas. The company had another group of employees in India who would answer any questions their American counterparts had on the job. The H1Bs were making about a third the rate that Americans made and worked with no benefits.

Unless you plan on running one of the contracting companies supplying these workers to Pittsburgh firms, I wouldn't celebrate too soon.

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by Goinback2011

There are huge numbers of Asians in Florida working in IT. I personally witnessed one consulting firm - run by Indians - who imported inexperienced Indian workers with H1B visas. The company had another group of employees in India who would answer any questions their American counterparts had on the job. The H1Bs were making about a third the rate that Americans made and worked with no benefits.

Unless you plan on running one of the contracting companies supplying these workers to Pittsburgh firms, I wouldn't celebrate too soon.

If a company is going to do that they might as well just outsource; it would probably be even cheaper.

[eschaton]

Working downtown, there's a huge Indian population which gets off the bus from Scott Township/Greentree Road - most of whom seem to work at Highmark.