Thread: Las Vegas identified as emerging gateway for immigrants

Las Vegas identified as emerging gateway for immigrants


Thursday, June 9, 2011 | 2 a.m.
Sun coverage

More Sun immigration stories

A Washington think tank says Las Vegas is a major U.S. metropolitan area with an emerging immigrant population but one whose adults are mostly low skilled because they lack high school degrees.

The Brookings Institution, in a report released today, says that is similar to its findings in Phoenix, but in sharp contrast to Atlanta and Orlando, Fla., whose immigrants on average are much better educated.

Basing its data on 2009 Census Bureau numbers, Brookings calculated that for every 100 adult immigrants in Las Vegas age 25 and older who don’t have a high school degree, there are only 49 high-skilled immigrants who have at least a bachelor’s degree.

That was based on 130,096 people who lacked high school degrees versus 63,367 who earned at least a four-year college degree. Also, 157,276 immigrants were considered midskilled because they had at least a high school diploma but didn’t have a bachelor’s degree.

Brookings identified Las Vegas as one of five major metropolitan areas in the country considered emerging gateways for immigrants because their foreign-born populations exceeded the national average since 1990 after being relatively small for most of the 20th century. The other cities are Atlanta; Orlando; Austin, Texas; and Phoenix. Phoenix has only 47 high-skilled immigrants for every 100 low-skilled ones. Austin is better at 73 to 100. But the ratio is 119 to 100 in Atlanta and 116 to 100 in Orlando.

A major reason Las Vegas has such a low ratio of high-skilled to low-skilled immigrants was the kind of work available in Southern Nevada before the Great Recession, said Brookings senior fellow Audrey Singer, co-author of the report.

“One of the things that attracted immigrants to Las Vegas was the relatively low cost of living, the quality of life and the housing boom,â€

"Immigrants"? I don't think so!

Las Vegas has been favorite city of illegal aliens for awhile. I know a couple that lives there that is already looking to move out of Nevada.