Thread: CA-East Bay still attracting immigrants despite downward tre

East Bay still attracting immigrants despite downward trend in state
By Matt O'Brien

Posted: 07/22/2009 10:00:00 PM PDT
Updated: 07/23/2009 12:59:23 PM PDT




Recession blocks illegal immigrationThe East Bay endures as a major gateway for newcomers to America, even as California's once boundless reputation for attracting immigrants is waning, according to a study.

Ending nearly a century of upward growth, the proportion of immigrants choosing to live in California has dropped to 27 percent from a high of 33 percent in 1990 as other states fielded rapid increases.

Among the cities with the fastest-growing concentration of immigrants this decade are Little Rock, Nashville, Las Vegas and Orlando. But that does not mean California is losing its immigrants. The state still has far more than any other.

Immigrants are increasingly skipping urban enclaves for outlying suburbs, a trend that began in California decades ago as the source of jobs shifted, said Sarah Bohn, a researcher at the Public Policy Institute of California, which released a study today on new patterns of immigrant settlement.

"Immigrants traditionally have chosen places because there's a large immigrant population, but the draw of a large immigrant population has waned in favor of the draw of jobs," Bohn said.

In the Bay Area, Alameda County's diverse immigrant population began to rival that of San Francisco's in the 1980s — both places had about 176,000 immigrants in the 1990 census.

But over the last two decades, the number of immigrants in Alameda County eclipsed those across the Bay, growing by 108 percent in 2007 compared with only 12 percent growth in San Francisco.

Meanwhile, neighboring Contra Costa County sported 145 percent growth in its immigrant population during that same period, one of the biggest increases in the state. In 2007, an estimated 199,000 immigrants lived in Contra Costa, about 1,000 more than in San Francisco.

Some of the characteristics of California immigrants have changed. The percentage of immigrants working in construction and manufacturing who live in California has declined since 1990.

The state's immigrants are also more educated than those of 20 years ago. In the metropolitan area that includes San Francisco and the East Bay, 35 percent of immigrants held college degrees in 2007 compared to 26 percent in 1990. In the Silicon Valley, 45 percent held college degrees in 2007 compared to 29 percent in 1990.

In many California counties, such as San Bernardino and Riverside, most growth has come from immigrants moving from one county to another. The East Bay, however, continues to attract one of the state's largest proportions of new immigrants.

"Oakland, for a long time, has been a landing area for new immigrants," said Audrey Singer, a researcher with the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. "There's always sort of a fresh wave."

From 2004 to 2007, Alameda County welcomed 42,720 new immigrants. Many are served by a cultural safety net that they would be unlikely to find in other places, said Art Choi, a social service coordinator of the Korean Community Center of the East Bay.

"We have a diverse culture here, and there's a lot of resources people can tap into," Choi said.

While Oakland has long served as an entrypoint for immigrants who later found better opportunities and cheaper living elsewhere, there are signs that might be changing, said Henry Rosales, executive director of the Spanish Speaking Citizens' Foundation, which serves low-income Latinos in the city.

"People would move out to areas like Fremont or Contra Costa or Stockton and Merced," said Rosales. "(Now) they're just going straight out to those areas instead of in the past, where they might stay here. Even with day laborers, you don't see that many anymore. There's no work. There's high unemployment."


http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_12893354?source=rss

They heard that Cali is running out of money and are going elsewhere to drain another state's welfare system.

There are too many, and most refuse to learn English. This is where I lived when I could find a job without speaking English, but could not find a job without speaking Spanish.

Immigrants or friggin' illegal aliens. Again no differentiation.