Immigration Fuels Urban Revitalization
That the US is a nation of immigrants is a truism. In the grand arc of history it applies for most nations, for migration is as old as humanity itself.
It may seem at times that half the world is on some kind of grand migration, from Africa, from the Middle East, from Afghanistan and from Asia. Yet, the total number of people living outside their countries of origin is surprisingly small, even if it may have grown since this 2005 observation:
Today when a nation's cities compete less with each other than on a global scale, one of the brighter lights in this dark debate comes from cities who see what they have in common rather than what separates them. In this vein eighteen mayors have signed a letter to President Obama (CityLab). All are part of the Cities United for Immigration Action coalition.
Take Baltimore: In 1913 forty-thousand residents came to the country via what was then seen as a "second Ellis Island" and Baltimore flourished in the process. It is useful to recall that in 1913 the global population was about 1.8 billion and the US population was still under 100 million and Baltimore was in the process to grow from only 500,000 people (1900) to 730,000 in only twenty years (1920). By those measures the 40,000 immigrants would equate some 160,000 newcomers today. To put it into a national perspective:
But the city flourished. Irish fleeing the potato famine, Poles, Lithuanians, Italians, Greeks and Germans came into Baltimore through Locust Point and many stayed in the city they arrived in as depicted in Barry Levinson's film Avalon (part of the film-makers Baltimore trilogy). Avalon tells the story of Polish Jewish immigrants arriving in Baltimore in 1914, attracting additional family to come to the city, their adaptation to American culture including building a business here. Even today the times of massive influx manifests themselves vividly in the landscape of the city from Greektown to Highlandtown to Little Italy, from the Italian markets to the Lithuanian and Polish Halls and ethnic festivals of all kinds. Especially the Italian heritage provides easy access for immigrants from Latin America who flock today to Highlandtown, open tiendas next to the Italian delicatessen stores and squeeze into the pews of the historic Italian church of the Lady of Pompei.
Recently, Baltimore's Mayor has recognized the importance of growing Baltimore again, a shrinking city for too many decades already. In Baltimore just as in the country as a whole, immigration plays a major role in keeping the age average from slipping into a majority of retirees, helps in bringing new talent and certainly provides much of the labor the country needs but can't seem to supply within. Immigrants and millennials are the two major forces assisting cities across America to grow their tax base and fill their zones of abandonment that afflict almost all cities as a result of urban flight that was all too common in past decades.
the whole alphabet of direct action and direct help. In the US, the letter to Obama written by mayors is a signal that cities here, too, want to be part of a humanitarian response. And they want to remain part of a long history in which cities welcomed newcomers, helped them to prosper and prospered themselves in the process. Cities will do well if they continue to pursue that course instead of succumbing to fear and
Migration is fundamentally the story of the human race from its origins to the present. Migration is an integral aspect of life on this planet. People move to survive. They move in search of food. They move away from danger and death. They move towards opportunities for life. Migration is tied to the human spirit, which seeks adventure, pursues dreams, and finds reasons to hope even in the most adverse circumstances. The Ethics of Migration and Immigration: Key Questions for Policy Makers, A Briefing Paper by Lynette M. Parker
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| Immigration density map |
The self-image of America sees this country as the "melting pot" in contrast to especially the nations of the Old World which are seen as homogeneous places with a population made up of one race, one culture, where it is not necessary to bring different cultures under one roof. This view may have been relatively correct for good parts of the 19th or 20th century, but it is not anymore.
The pattern of immigration and lower crime nonetheless goes against popular stereotypes, which may explain the angry initial reaction to the idea. Among the public, policy-makers, and many academics, a common expectation is that the concentration of immigrants and the influx of foreigners drive up disorder and crime because of the assumed propensities of these groups to commit crimes and settle in poor, presumably disorganized communities. This belief is so pervasive that the concentration of Latinos in a neighborhood strongly predicts perceptions of disorder, regardless of the neighborhood’s actual amount of disorder or the rate of reported violence. Nonetheless, whatever people think, increases in immigration are correlated with less violence, and first-generation immigrants tend to be less violent than those born in America, particularly when they live in neighborhoods with high numbers of other immigrants. (The American Prospect)
The notion of a nation-state that can close its borders, and in which those who live within, have special rights similar to property owners is historically much more recent than migration itself and founded on similar notions that were common for city states in antiquity and fiefdoms of the middle ages. Today the feuding between the city states of Sparta and Athens seems quaint and extremely provincial even though it represents a well-known narrative of history we learn in school. Today we think of Greece as a small country certainly unified in their interests relative to Turkey or the EU. The United States and more recently the European Union wanted to overcome parochial boundaries and establish free movement, trade and a common legal base for a much larger entity.
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| Immigrants in absolute number 1820-2005 |
Just as we think fiefdoms are a mark of the dark ages where people were prevented to move freely even within regions it is conceivable that future generations my consider our ongoing feuds between nations equally parochial. In spite of borders as arbitrary as the one between Mexico and the US, the fiefdom thinking today is alive and well as Donald Trump vividly proves when he talks to great applause about the wall he would build between the two countries.
It may seem at times that half the world is on some kind of grand migration, from Africa, from the Middle East, from Afghanistan and from Asia. Yet, the total number of people living outside their countries of origin is surprisingly small, even if it may have grown since this 2005 observation:
According to the United Nations, only around 191 million people lived outside the country of their birth in 2005 — around 3% of world population. Nevertheless the presence of international migrants can raise many contentious issues and generate controversy out of all proportion to their modest numbers. (Peter Stalker, "Guide to International Migration")
The recently deceased French philosopher Andre Glucksmann, himself a son of refugees, observed that "the nomads of the present remind us of the demons of the past". The demons of the past include imperial states that reigned over far flung colonies, colonies that now see that heritage and shared culture as a path to the former colonial powers: Spain, Holland, France, and England. The demons of the past include Germany's past that upended Europe and the world. The demons of the past can also be much more recent such as the war on Iraq which set in motion falling dominoes in that part of the world in a manner much different from what Eisenhower described as "falling dominos", a term later elevated into "domino theory". Those demons are especially visible in the form of refugees from Syria who appear by the hundreds of thousands in the cities of Europe.
“So this obsession with the Roma (gypsies) is not about fear of the other, it is the fear of the self—of what we might become. We all have to read ‘Les Misérables’ again.” (Andre Glucksmann)
In some ironical twist, the refugees create a firestorm of fear mongering right here in the US where fewer Syrians found asylum all last year than have arrived in Munich in a single weekend.
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| Immigrant population in % per state |
Today when a nation's cities compete less with each other than on a global scale, one of the brighter lights in this dark debate comes from cities who see what they have in common rather than what separates them. In this vein eighteen mayors have signed a letter to President Obama (CityLab). All are part of the Cities United for Immigration Action coalition.
"We will welcome the Syrian families to make homes and new lives in our cities. Indeed, we are writing to say that we stand ready to work with your Administration to do much more and to urge you to increase still further the number of Syrian refugees the United States will accept for resettlement.Baltimore is one of these cities. These mayors may be the better humanists, but they are not entirely selfless.They just have a better memory than some of their Governor counterparts who asked the President to stop allowing Syrian asylum seeker altogether. Mayors know that cities benefit from immigrants.
This is a challenge we can meet, and the undersigned mayors stand ready to help you meet it."
Take Baltimore: In 1913 forty-thousand residents came to the country via what was then seen as a "second Ellis Island" and Baltimore flourished in the process. It is useful to recall that in 1913 the global population was about 1.8 billion and the US population was still under 100 million and Baltimore was in the process to grow from only 500,000 people (1900) to 730,000 in only twenty years (1920). By those measures the 40,000 immigrants would equate some 160,000 newcomers today. To put it into a national perspective:
Immigration to the United States has been rising steadily and has now reached levels similar to those of the early 1900s. In 1914 arrivals of 1.2 million were 1.5% of the population, whereas in 2005 they were around 0.3%. Note that this is just arrivals. In fact, around one-third of permanent settlers return home. (Peter Stalker, "Guide to International Migration")
We know that the immigration wave and growth spurt was not free of tensions. Discrimination was rampant not only against other nationalities but especially other races than the dominant white one. With a 40% increase of blacks between 1890 and 1910, Baltimore in the early 1910s "distinguished" itself as a place where segregation laws and covenants were invented that were initially unique in the country.
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| Immigrants and their houses of worship shaped many cities: Baltimore |
But the city flourished. Irish fleeing the potato famine, Poles, Lithuanians, Italians, Greeks and Germans came into Baltimore through Locust Point and many stayed in the city they arrived in as depicted in Barry Levinson's film Avalon (part of the film-makers Baltimore trilogy). Avalon tells the story of Polish Jewish immigrants arriving in Baltimore in 1914, attracting additional family to come to the city, their adaptation to American culture including building a business here. Even today the times of massive influx manifests themselves vividly in the landscape of the city from Greektown to Highlandtown to Little Italy, from the Italian markets to the Lithuanian and Polish Halls and ethnic festivals of all kinds. Especially the Italian heritage provides easy access for immigrants from Latin America who flock today to Highlandtown, open tiendas next to the Italian delicatessen stores and squeeze into the pews of the historic Italian church of the Lady of Pompei.
Our Lady of Pompei was founded as a parish in 1923 in order to serve the Italian immigrant community in Baltimore. Construction of the church began in 1923 and was completed the next year; the first mass was held on June 1, 1924. The church was founded by the Vincentian Fathers. The first pastor and founder was Fr. Luigi Scialdone, C.M. (website)For a complete overview of the ethnic groups making up Baltimore today, see this Wikipedia overview.
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| Bocce court in Little Italy, Baltimore |
As Americans moved out of the Rust Belt and other areas, those from outside the U.S. took their place. The Detroit metro area saw more than 50,000 residents move away since 2010, but added more than 21,000 via international migration. Similarly, the Cleveland-Elyria, Ohio, area recorded a net domestic migration loss of 27,000 residents, but attracted nearly 8,000 from abroad.The immigration debate has many aspects. Whatever one's position in it may be, there is little that can stop global migrations. Americans in particular should understand especially the moral aspects of the issue thanks to their own historic, cultural and geographic roots. More to the point, though, America in general, and American cities in particular, benefit too much from immigration to let the debate about deportation and closed borders create the impression that we have not only forgotten our own history but have also become oblivious to the fruits we reaped from it.
In fact, 37 growing metro areas would have lost total population had it not been for new residents from overseas. Such metro areas include New York City, Trenton, N.J., and Reading, Pa.
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| Lithuanian Hall, Baltimore |
...mobility, movement, migration - by whatever name we choose to call it - is unstoppable. It’s coming to a city near you - and that’s a good thing. The story of civilization, by and large, is the story of mankind on the move, people migrating mostly from sleepy, conservative villages into bustling cities. The cities need their energy and their ambition. The migrants need what only cities can offer: a chance to succeed. (Cities of Migration)As in many other respects such as climate adaptation, cities around the world are left to fend for themselves by their central governments. The mayors, the churches and the local non-profits are the ones who roll up their sleeves and act. In Munich, in Vienna, in Copenhagen and in Baltimore. The European cities have worked to exhaustion to accommodate the thousands arriving at their train stations day after day. Soup kitchens, shelters, re-dedication of deserted buildings or new ones about to be completed, cowardice.
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| A touch of Old World in the New World |
Klaus Philipsen, FAIA
edited by Ben Groff, JD
Links and Sources:
Immigration and the Revival of the the American City (Report)
CityLab: America's top immigrant cities, Why American Cities are Fighting to Attract Immigrants
Immigration and America's Urban Revival (The American Prospect)
Baltimore, the other Ellis Island
Links and Sources:
Immigration and the Revival of the the American City (Report)
CityLab: America's top immigrant cities, Why American Cities are Fighting to Attract Immigrants
Immigration and America's Urban Revival (The American Prospect)
Baltimore, the other Ellis Island
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