Pittsburgh: Slowly improving as an immigrant destination? (Akron, Canton: top neighborhoods, apartment)

[Craziaskowboi]

Much is made of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area having the lowest percentage of foreign-born residents of any major metropolitan area in the United States. The number is something like 4% or so. Anyway, I've noticed in the last 10 years that the city of Pittsburgh has developed some positive socioeconomic trends that tend to get wiped out by the metropolitan data. It's become more diverse, especially relative to the very white outlying counties. Incomes in the city also gained ground on incomes in the suburbs.

Another trend that appears to be happening is that the city is doing an increasingly good job of attracting foreign immigrants. The Wall Street Journal has an article about "Rust Belt" metropolitan areas and their efforts to roll out the welcome mat for foreign immigrants, and it features a chart with a list highlighting the foreign-born percentage of some of the fastest-shrinking cities per the 2010 Census. Pittsburgh's foreign-born percentage is 7.4%, which is almost double the metropolitan percentage.

What caught my eye about the chart, though, was how Pittsburgh compared to the other cities proper on the list. Here's how it compares to the major cities:


21.4% - Chicago
7.6% - St. Louis
7.4% - Pittsburgh
5.8% - Cincinnati
5.3% - Cleveland
5.0% - Detroit


In Ohio, the cities of Akron, Canton, Dayton, Toledo and Youngstown all had less than 5% foreign born, and Youngstown was actually the leader of the bunch (4.6%). The chart did list two suburbs: Southfield, MI (Detroit) and Parma, OH (Cleveland). They had immigrant concentrations of 11.3% and 8.5%, respectively.

It appears that Pittsburgh is the socioeconomic leader in its metropolitan area, similar to Chicago, whereas other cities like Cincinnati, Cleveland and Detroit are the socioeconomic laggards. The only way those metropolitan areas can have a higher foreign-born percentage than Pittsburgh is if their immigrants are mostly spread throughout the suburbs. This also illustrates what I've said elsewhere that Pittsburgh is being reborn from the inside out, and the rebirth started about 10 years ago.

Hopefully by 2020, the foreign immigrant population in the city can rise above 10%. That, I think, would give it enough critical mass to develop an immigrant stream that's steady without being overwhelming.

(NOTE: To get around the pay wall, you can link to the article from Google for free.)

[Geeo]

I think the percentage increases in foreign-born population are impressive, but since we started out so low, the numbers aren't huge yet. But they are increasing, especially among Hispanic, Asian, and Indian populations. Vibrant Pittsburgh has a program through the PRA that connects with immigrants already here in ways to make the area more appealing, and we're getting closer to critical mass. Those already here are doing what immigrants have always done: getting the word out to friends and families and bringing them here. The east end of the city is one of the magnets (medical centers and universities), as well as the South Hills.

[eschaton]

You didn't list Baltimore and Buffalo, which are both ahead of Pittsburgh in terms of foreign-born residents, and (IMHO) firmly part of the rust belt (I'd actually say Philly is more rust belt than Chicago these days, although neither one is truly a rust-belt city any longer).

Regardless, I think Pittsburgh punches below its seeming weight in foreign-born residents because so many of them are undergrads or graduate students at CMU. You can see this if you look at the NYT mapping the 2010 census site, zoom into Pittsburgh, and look at where high concentrations of Asians are within the city. The highest Asian population is in the part of North Oakland where all the apartment towers/condos are. Next comes the part of Squirrel Hill North with CMU's campus, and western Shadyside. Then there are notable Asian populations in the rest of Shadyside, Squirrel Hill, North Oakland, and parts of Bloomfield and Friendship - everywhere students live.

The problem here is twofold. First, most of these people aren't planning on staying. In some cases, they cannot stay due to student visa requirements, although hopefully more will stay with immigration reform. Secondly, they do not form prominent ethnic enclaves - they live integrated within the city. While this is good in terms of social cohesion, it also means they aren't visible. A city like Detroit has far less immigrants, but given they have a prominent ethnic enclave (Mexicantown) it makes it seem like the immigrant community is far more visible.

IIRC, the top three ESL languages spoken in Pittsburgh Public Schools now are Nepalese (spoken by the Bhutanese population), Somali Bantu, then Spanish. The first two are due to small populations of resettled refugees. Which shows for the most part the East End Asian population (at least the non-native born portion) isn't putting down tremendous roots here...yet.

[Goodjules]

While I love it here in Pittsburgh, I really miss the excellent ethnic restaurants of the SF Bay Area. Hopefully some of these immigrants will open restaurants featuring their native cuisines. It sometimes seems as though every restaurant here, with a very few notable exceptions, serves only burgers, pizza, wings and the like. In SF you can get truly excellent cuisine in little hole in the wall places for a very reasonable price. I'd like more options like that here.

[fat lou]

Why, exactly, does Pittsburgh need to have a foreign-born population above 10%? Do we have a jobs surplus in this city? It seems to me that many in this region are underemployed, as shown in the regular postings here by people looking for houses that cost 50k. Why do we need to bring people in when there aren't enough well-paying jobs for the people who already live here?

[pman]

Originally Posted by fat lou

Why, exactly, does Pittsburgh need to have a foreign-born population above 10%? Do we have a jobs surplus in this city? It seems to me that many in this region are underemployed, as shown in the regular postings here by people looking for houses that cost 50k. Why do we need to bring people in when there aren't enough well-paying jobs for the people who already live here?

Pittsburgh, as a city, might want a foreign born population because it brings in new people, new ideas, and new life. it doesn't do the city any good to have some person outside the city but on welfare that trashes the city. far better to have a mexican family living in beechview who isn't waiting for the next big thing but works hard to improve their lives. immigrants also have higher rates of business ownership and small businesses are good for cities.

[Goinback2011]

There are vast differences among ethnicities of immigrants in things like education, small business ownership, etc.

I don't see a lack of 'diversity' in Pittsburgh, unless you're talking about Mexicans.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by Gnutella

Hopefully by 2020, the foreign immigrant population in the city can rise above 10%. That, I think, would give it enough critical mass to develop an immigrant stream that's steady without being overwhelming.

(NOTE: To get around the pay wall, you can link to the article from Google for free.)

The foreign immigrant population, as well as the internal immigration population, will rise when Pittsburgh has more jobs than can be filled by the native population here.

When Pittsburgh did have a lot of foreign immigrants, it wasn't due to any actions of the city fathers at all, but guys like Frick who had plenty of entry level positions in basic steel production and fabrication and were willing to recruit far and wide.

The idea has to be to encourage the kind of industries that will require the new hands- maybe loosening of governmental regulations on business and redeveloping the industrial infrastructure of locks, dams, rails and highways might help out.

Being "diverse" for the sake of being diverse is insanity- non-English speaking individuals who can't find gainful employment are a social problem not a solution.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam

Being "diverse" for the sake of being diverse is insanity- non-English speaking individuals who can't find gainful employment are a social problem not a solution.

I dunno. I think having a Hmong, Bosnian, or Haitian neighborhood would do the city any damage. Probably do whatever neighborhoods they settled in a great deal of good, even without a net increase in jobs.

I mean, I grew up in New England. There are numerous small, economically depressed cities which have never recovered from the job decline the closure of the mills brought. But a large number of lower income minorities (first Puerto Ricans, and later other groups) moved in, thus saving them from the sort of catastrophic population decline many areas of Southwestern PA saw. As a result, while these cities might have crime and job issues, you don't see anywhere near the level of blight and abandonment.

Basically, a more robust immigrant population would stop neighborhoods like Spring Garden from vanishing into a pile of rubble. I consider that a net plus.

[BarqCider]

Originally Posted by eschaton

You didn't list Baltimore and Buffalo, which are both ahead of Pittsburgh in terms of foreign-born residents, and (IMHO) firmly part of the rust belt (I'd actually say Philly is more rust belt than Chicago these days, although neither one is truly a rust-belt city any longer).

Regardless, I think Pittsburgh punches below its seeming weight in foreign-born residents because so many of them are undergrads or graduate students at CMU. You can see this if you look at the NYT mapping the 2010 census site, zoom into Pittsburgh, and look at where high concentrations of Asians are within the city. The highest Asian population is in the part of North Oakland where all the apartment towers/condos are. Next comes the part of Squirrel Hill North with CMU's campus, and western Shadyside. Then there are notable Asian populations in the rest of Shadyside, Squirrel Hill, North Oakland, and parts of Bloomfield and Friendship - everywhere students live.

The problem here is twofold. First, most of these people aren't planning on staying. In some cases, they cannot stay due to student visa requirements, although hopefully more will stay with immigration reform. Secondly, they do not form prominent ethnic enclaves - they live integrated within the city. While this is good in terms of social cohesion, it also means they aren't visible. A city like Detroit has far less immigrants, but given they have a prominent ethnic enclave (Mexicantown) it makes it seem like the immigrant community is far more visible.

IIRC, the top three ESL languages spoken in Pittsburgh Public Schools now are Nepalese (spoken by the Bhutanese population), Somali Bantu, then Spanish. The first two are due to small populations of resettled refugees. Which shows for the most part the East End Asian population (at least the non-native born portion) isn't putting down tremendous roots here...yet.

personally i prefer blending into what is established instead of trying to create your mini nation in some neighborhood. i should rephrase that. there is a chinatown in nyc,sf and to an extent in DC. but those kinds of places is fine which is a business sector, and i think that is your point, but the kind im talking about are where you know they live just for the sake of living with next to their kind. In a sense i find that appalling because it shows people want them there, just not in full view of others.