Immigrants prop up U.S. cities

Suzanne Goldenberg

IMMIGRATION IS helping to keep America's big cities vibrant and alive, buffering major metropolitan areas from a slow drain in population as long-time residents move out, new data released on Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau show. The trend also holds true for smaller centres.

"New York would certainly be declining in population, same with Los Angeles, and so they really are kind of propping up the population in a lot of big cities," said Mark Mather of the Population Reference Bureau. "In some places, like in the rust belt around Pittsburgh, where they are having real substantial population loss, immigrants are playing a vital role. They are coming in and filling needed jobs, and providing some of the tax base that is needed to help the economy." The area still lost 60,000 of its population between 2000 and last year, according to census data, but without immigration the decline would have been far worse.

By the middle of this century those patterns of movement — native-born Americans moving out, newcomers moving in — will put a very different face on the average city.

Emotional topic

In some of the fastest growing cities, such as the Dallas-Fort Worth area, immigrants accounted for nearly 80 per cent of population growth over the last six years. Such transformation, under way in cities including New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles and in towns such as Ames, Iowa, and Battle Creek, Michigan, comes at a time when immigration has emerged as the most emotionally charged topic of public debate in the U.S. after the Iraq war.

New York and its suburbs absorbed one million immigrants from 2000 to 2006, the census data show. Without them the region would have shrunk by nearly 600,000 people. Immigration to Los Angeles prevented an expected decline of 200,000. The Boston area took in 163,000 immigrants, saving it from negative population growth. For many native-born Americans, the issue of immigration is tangled up with frustration at the country's failure to seal off its borders. About a third of the 36 million immigrants to the U.S. are believed to be in the country illegally.

Last month the White House introduced a proposal for reforms that would allow millions to stay in the country as guest workers after paying substantial fines, but that would clamp down on illegal border crossings from Mexico. However, advocates for new immigrants argue that the latest data show that the newcomers are essential to keep American cities afloat.

— © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2007