Embracing Immigrants

I recently spoke (and wrote) about the humanitarian case for more positive attitudes toward immigrants. This week, I found two news items that make the economic case.

Even though the town of Hazelton, Pennsylvania enacted strong measures to discourage migration -- measures whose constitutionality is still being tested in court -- migration has continued, and a recent study has documented the economic benefits.

Meanwhile, Baltimore, Maryland is actively encouraging immigrants to move in to a city with many serious problems but still much to offer, and certainly plenty of inexpensive housing in need of occupants.

Baltimore row houses, image from the work of
sociologist and photographer David Schalliol.

Both cases remind me a bit of Framingham, Massachusetts, a city that in many ways failed to embrace its Brazilian immigrant community, and that did not really recognize the contributions of immigrants until many of them left during the economic downturn.


For more on immigration, see what it has meant for Mitt Romney.