Immigrants Prop Up Us Cities As Locals Move Out

Immigration is helping to keep America's big cities vibrant and alive, buffering major metropolitan areas from a slow drain in population as longtime residents move out, new data released yesterday by the US Census Bureau shows.

The trend also holds true for smaller centres, with new arrivals compensating for a shift in population away from the cities and towns of the midwest and northeast towards the south.

"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, a demographer at 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 and their families moving in - will put a very different face on the average city. The majority population will be members of ethnic minority groups. In some of the fastest growing cities, such as the Dallas Fort Worth area, immigrants accounted for nearly 80% of population growth over the last six years.

Such transformations come at a time when immigration has emerged as the most emotionally charged topic of public debate in the United States after the Iraq war.

New York and its suburbs absorbed one million immigrants from 2000 to 2006, the census data shows. Without them the region would have shrunk by nearly 600,000 people. Immigration to Los Angeles prevented an expected decline of 200,000. The greater Boston area took in 163,000 immigrants, saving it from negative population growth.

More than half of all new immigrants to the US are from Latin America, with Mexico leading the way, although there are also substantial numbers of arrivals from India and China. About a quarter of the newcomers make their way to New York and Los Angeles, but demographers say they have also noted the new arrivals are moving out beyond the south-western states and major centres towards the midwest.

In the larger cities there is emerging evidence of a class - as well as an ethnic - divide, with working-class and poorly educated immigrants, who are often from Latin America, settling in urban centres, and highly skilled immigrants, from countries such as India and China, gravitating towards the suburbs.

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 US are believed to be in the country illegally. While business admits the economy could not run without their willingness to take on low-paid jobs, undocumented workers have been a source of resentment, and are accused of becoming a burden on school and health services.

More than 80 small towns are considering regulations that would punish those who rent flats to or employ illegal immigrants. Last month the White House resumed efforts to find a national compromise, introducing 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 say the latest data shows that the newcomers are essential to keep American cities afloat. "It really reiterates the fact that immigrants are a boom for our country, and are integral to the economic, social and cultural growth of our society," said Nicola Wells of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement.