Pittsburgh Trying to Attract Immigrants

[SolitaryThrush]

Originally Posted by BarqCider

i think his point (h curtis) is: he wants folks who PAY INTO the taxes, NOT the ones who LEECH off social benefits and don't contribute to the taxes of the city/county itself.

So then he wants immigrants. Western PA provides its own leeches.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by SolitaryThrush

So then he wants immigrants. Western PA provides its own leeches.

More like, he doesn't want more leeches.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by pman

you can agree to whatever you want, your point is complete nonsense. you said

which clearly implies that if someone isn't educated they're lazy parasites

of course, in reality, someone can grow up in, say, mexico, not be lazy and not be educated. plenty of uneducated, hard working people made pittsburgh into a city in the first place.

That was back in the day when factories didn't need scholars. But is there a shortage of skilled laborers in Pittsburgh that can work a construction site? If so, believe me, Pittsburgh won't have to import people from 3rd world countries to get them what with the recent housing bust.

[pman]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

That was back in the day when factories didn't need scholars. But is there a shortage of skilled laborers in Pittsburgh that can work a construction site? If so, believe me, Pittsburgh won't have to import people from 3rd world countries to get them what with the recent housing bust.

this always struck me as backwards. the only reason you'd want to import skilled and highly educated immigrants is if your society fails to produce skilled and highly educated people itself (and one can argue that is in fact the case). otherwise, the idea that the best and highest paying jobs should go to immigrants while the grunt work is reserved for locals always struck me as a bit odd.
Dine: Is there a cook shortage? - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
I don't see why immigrants would be a bad thing. the strip is dominated by once immigrant owned businesses. immigrants open businesses at a higher rate than natives. fact. immigrant bring with them different ideas and cultures. fact. houston has plenty of immigrants and is booming, fact. if pittsburgh is generating wealth, both real and perceived, it too will have more immigrants, my opinion.

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

More like, he doesn't want more leeches.

good, hard working immigrants to replace the native leeches...people to lazy to work in a kitchen since they can just collect their welfare. yes, there are plenty in the river towns.

[Lucario]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I wonder if Pittsburgh could attract a Dominican community? Immigrants are often attracted to cities which have direct flights back home, and Punta Cana is the one of the few international locations you can get a daily direct flight to (Cancun, Toronto, and Paris being the others).

The more Latinos, the better. One reason I left there years ago was because there were so few.

[Lucario]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I think it depends upon the group honestly, and how and why they settle there. For example, Asian Immigrants are often held up as "model minorities" - however, if you look at the experience of the Hmong community in the U.S. (who generally come here as refugees) you'll see they tend to acculturate mostly to stereotyped inner-city behavior, have high dropout rates, gang issues, etc.

That said, any immigrants are better than none at all. Take a look at the many small cities in Eastern PA, like Reading and Allentown. They may be rough areas, but the influx of Latino immigrants (in part internal migrants from NYC, but also international) saved them from the sort of abandonment and large-scale demolition we've seen in portions of Western Pennsylvania. I have to think if we could airdrop 1,000 Haitians in Spring Garden or somewhere similar it would be better than the status quo.

That'd be great too.