Immigrant communities you wish Pittsburgh had (and where you'd put them) (California: job market, schools)

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by bradjl2009

I'd like more people from Poland to immigrate back to Pittsburgh. We have so many cultural things from that group which are in danger of falling out in the future, I think it would be nice to keep them going strong.

We still get immigrants from Poland. You don't recognize them because they're just like us these days.

[ferraris]

I'm not a big fan of diversity merely for diversity's sake, so I guess I don't really care unless it's the driving force behind something that benefits everyone, like what is happening in Beechview. The fact that it's ethnically driven is just circumstantial.

[SolitaryThrush]

Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam

Foreign students aren't immigrants, and their foreign sponsors probably wouldn't be too appreciative if a lot of them did stay (in violation of their original visas).

Yes, I know, that's why they're called non-immigrant visas. Furthermore, since the point of foreign study is to improve their home country once they're finished, the idea isn't to help Pittsburgh get better restaurants.

Good grief.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by ebyrnes

I would love to have immigrants from the Mid East move to the north side (selfishly, for their good food). Some folks from Turkey and Greece would be great as well. I would be thrilled to have any person move here if they are willing to keep the 'hood clean and relatively crime free. We have a decent foundation here in Marshall-shadeland (transit, library, mixture of housing stock), we just need decent people to move in and help to move the riff raft elsewhere; let Cranberry deal with them for a while.

I'm sure there are thousands of Greeks who would love to move to Pittsburgh right now, if only given a chance. Some scary news coming from that country as of late, between chronic unemployment and the rise of local Nazis.

That said, U.S. immigration policy doesn't just let droves migrate in for no reason any more.

Originally Posted by sparrowmint

Have the Somali immigrants to Minnesota been good for their area? They're specifically controversial to a lot of residents in urban parts of Ontario (Toronto, Ottawa, for example). Disproportionately responsible for crimes previously not seen to the same degree, like swarmings (not sure if this is a term used here, but it's like a mugging, except done by a whole group of people against one or two, usually much more violent) and gun crimes. With that said, those brought to Canada are disproportionately refugees who never seem to really adjust, and so I wonder if there's a difference between them and those who come to the US, who are maybe from a different immigrant background (skilled workers? I don't know). Refugees from middle eastern backgrounds have disproportionately been trouble as well, contrasted with those who come from different immigrant backgrounds to Canada and start businesses, have educated kids, and so on.

I don't know a lot about the Somali community in Minneapolis, but I do know they get along pretty badly with native-born African Americans. In general Muslim immigrants to the U.S. tend to be highly educated, wealthy, and integrate into U.S. culture pretty seamlessly. The U.S. has the best integration of Muslim Immigrants in the world, IIRC, which is saying a lot considering how bad post 9/11 hysteria was.

Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam

I think that refugees and immigrants are two different phenomena.

Refugees are people that the federal government agreed to place in the United States because of political unrest or warfare in their native countries, and they go to the communities where there are social service agencies willing to assist them. These refugees really don't have a choice of coming to Pittsburgh, they might just as soon be placed in Australia, Canada or other nation willing to help in one int'l effort or another.

Immigrants come here on their own for opportunities in the region- whether its Ukrainian or Polish peasants seeking an entry level position in coal excavation in the 19th Century or later on, African Americans in the south looking to switch careers from agriculture to steel production in the 20th.

Refugees are certainly fine to come here too, provided our economy is growing enough to support them, immigrants presumably wouldn't bother making the trip unless there was opportunity already here.

I'm not sure to what degree the U.S. distinguishes the two groups. Certainly for Visas it matters, but once people get their green cards as permanent residents I think everyone is lumped in together.

Refugees can cause the "real immigrants" you mention to come later. It's what happened in Miami, for example, where once the Cubans put an economy in place which was bilingual people from throughout Latin America began migrating there. I think it happened to a large degree with the Chinese and Korean population, who both migrated to the U.S. in large numbers following the end of the Chinese Civil War and during/after the Korean war respectively, but created the networks to have further groups of migrants follow them.

Originally Posted by Hopes

We still get immigrants from Poland. You don't recognize them because they're just like us these days.

Much more of a big deal in the UK these days. Since the EU adopted open borders/migration, the default if you're out of work and looking for other opportunities is to just go to another European county. Maybe with the entire EU being in the ****ter now that will change.

Originally Posted by ferrarisnowday

I'm not a big fan of diversity merely for diversity's sake, so I guess I don't really care unless it's the driving force behind something that benefits everyone, like what is happening in Beechview. The fact that it's ethnically driven is just circumstantial.

I understand what you mean, but the fact is without some more international migration, there's only so much we can do to develop ourselves. AFAIK, Portland is the only U.S. city in the modern era which has rebounded with domestic migration being almost the only source of population growth. It's a model I think we could follow, but adding some international migrants to the mix provides a lot more options for revival.

[sparrowmint]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I don't know a lot about the Somali community in Minneapolis, but I do know they get along pretty badly with native-born African Americans. In general Muslim immigrants to the U.S. tend to be highly educated, wealthy, and integrate into U.S. culture pretty seamlessly. The U.S. has the best integration of Muslim Immigrants in the world, IIRC, which is saying a lot considering how bad post 9/11 hysteria was.

Well, that's because US immigration law is so restrictive to the educated, rich, or people with high demand job offers already in place. In countries that allow lower income and lower educated folks in a little more freely, there are more problems from certain parts of the world, as parts of urban Canada are experiencing, plus all across Europe. Since we talked about this yesterday, I did some searching, and apparently Minneapolis was having a lot of problems with them and were able to get it somewhat under control: Minneapolis' Somali experience may hold lessons for Toronto police - Toronto - CBC News

[mountainlove]

The Somali families in Pittsburgh are by and large refugees who were settled here by the US Government through their local refugee resettlement agency, Catholic Charities.

They are mainly Somali Bantus who had to flee Somalia many years earlier, and spend a number of years in the refugee camps of Kenya. They kept them in the refugee camps for years with the hope that the ongoing war in Somalia would end, and they could return to their homes. That civil war (still raging today) is showing no signs of calming down so we started taking in a small portion of the refugees.

This group of people are generally hard working, and are successfully navigating their way through life in Pittsburgh without the drama discussed above in some other cities.

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by Hopes

We still get immigrants from Poland. You don't recognize them because they're just like us these days.

The feds actually post a database for each metro of the top ten counties their immigrants come from each year. From what I can remember Pittsburghs top ten included China, India, Canada, Vietnam, and a few European countries. Not a single Hispanic country was represented in the top ten and Poland wasn't there either. Besides the top three countries, none had more than 100 immigrate here annually.

[bradjl2009]

Also about the Somalians in Africa comment there was some controversy with them a few years ago because many of them are cab drivers up there and would give problems to passengers who had alcohol with them because it was against their religion. It was from a few years ago but it shows not everyone who moves to a new country is willing to go along with the way of life there.

Muslim cab drivers lose round in court | Minnesota Public Radio News

[okaydorothy]

It dosnt really matter where the immigrants come from or where they move to, what does matter is that they assimilate to life in the states and do not expect the natives to accomodate them.
We are immigrants from Ireland and lived in NY for 25 years but not in the irish enclaves. Then we recently moved to Pittsburgh and love it. When we lived in NY, we were surrounded by immigrants from south of the border who demanded hand outs, kept the outside of their homes filthy and overcrowded and waited on corners for work.
I love immigrants that are hard working, respectful and want to get ahead. Some of the kids that are in school with my children are wonderful children and are the children of immigrants who work hard, get ahead and do not depend on others for basics.

[steindle]

Originally Posted by okaydorothy

When we lived in NY, we were surrounded by immigrants from south of the border who demanded hand outs, kept the outside of their homes filthy and overcrowded and waited on corners for work.

Those damned people, purposefully overcrowding their homes and working low wage, demeaning jobs because they just love to do those things so much. Who's ever heard of an Irish immigrant doing such things?