'Them Foreigners' May Be Saviors

I was sent a link to the NY Times mapping of data updates from the census bureau...this not unlike the ones that artist made, which showed all so clearly the racial/ethnic divides of our town.

But the NY Times map allows certain 'other maps' filters to be applied, and when I clicked on the one that showed the percentage of foreign-born individuals in the count, I was immediately struck by the seeming correlation with some of the most vibrant areas in town.

It seems our greatest hindrance against progress may indeed BE being born HERE. My guess is those whose families have been here a generation or two have suffered what city activist Vince Keenan described as unrequited love for the city, that "they bred out of me any expectation of return for my love". But love don't pay no bills!

After a few generations of hard-knocks learning, it is tough to impossible to get any "familiar funding" for dream projects. I mean specifically getting family, friends, and neighbors interested in providing base startup funding, which banks require before even considering loaning an enterprise anything.

http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2...=-122.422&l=14

To get to what I'm talking about, you've got to enter Detroit, MI into the city field, then click on the View More Maps button and then click on Foreign Born.

[[one surprise, as an aside, it seems Ecorse wins in the density of same-sex couple households)

[[another, the Median Household income change charting may be a story unto itself)

Percentage of foreign born residents is probably the greatest predictor of whether a large U.S. city is growing, stagnant or shrinking.

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Originally Posted by Gannon

[[one surprise, as an aside, it seems Ecorse wins in the density of same-sex couple households)

[[another, the Median Household income change charting may be a story unto itself)

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Apparently Woodbridge, Boston Edison, and Indian Village are way gayer than Ferndale, which doesn't necessarily surprise me.

The Ecorse thing I think may be a blip because that tract appears to only cover a few blocks and who knows how much of that is residential. It could very well be 5 houses with 1 gay couple in one of them!

Hamtramck is always fun on maps like these because its a small splatter of everything.

I do question the accuracy of this and think they should offer a disclaimer. The ACS is not the census - it is a sampling. And there is NO WAY North Corktown is 2% white. Probably more like 20%.

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Originally Posted by DetroitPole

And there is NO WAY North Corktown is 2% white. Probably more like 20%.

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Depends. Are pheasants counted in the total?

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Originally Posted by DetroitPole

The Ecorse thing I think may be a blip because that tract appears to only cover a few blocks and who knows how much of that is residential. It could very well be 5 houses with 1 gay couple in one of them!

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Never quite thought about the sample size.

It's probably that couple of roommates who both work at Gold's Gym. They WERE on the down-low.

Bummer.

what can Detroit city government do to make the city more attractive for immigrant settlement?

City of Detroit should give away vacant land to residents, immigrants, and, hell, even illegals if they agree to put something on the land or farm it. But I sense that the church[[es) in Detroit and some ethno nationalist-types don't want outsiders coming into Detroit, even if the city would prosper from it.

Immigrants love southeast Michigan - housing is cheap and it's proving pretty easy for a lot of folks to start businesses. In fact some of the immigrant groups have their own de facto business incubators.

The biggest thing America has to do is to stop fighting this phenomenon! Immigrants enrich us and many of them are willing to work harder than many of us.

The term "illegal immigrant" tells you that we are taking the wrong approach; the very idea that we would use such a term. The law an "illegal immigrant" is breaking is that he does not have the proper piece of paper. When my grandmother and my great-grandmother came here from Italy, without papers [[since the Italian government was not giving such papers freely), they were classified as "undocumented aliens".

Note the subtle shift in terminology; if only George Carlin were alive to remark upon it. My grandmother in 1924 was "undocumented"; the same child in the same circumstances today is "illegal".

By the way, my undocumented-alien grandmother ran a successful grocery business for 50 years and never collected a nickel of government money of any kind, like most newcomers to our shores.

This could the answer to the ethnic problems in Detroit. I can use this demographic map to find out where a race of people are moving and building their communities.

them fureners [[Christiane Amanpour and Piers Morgan ) is takin jobs away from good 'mericans.

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Originally Posted by professorscott

The biggest thing America has to do is to stop fighting this phenomenon! Immigrants enrich us and many of them are willing to work harder than many of us.

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Of course immigrants enrich us. We are, after all, a nation of immigrants. This is why the Unites States welcomes more of them into our society than any other nation on Earth.

One should not confuse a reaction to those who knowingly violate our immigration laws with a hatred of immigrants in general. The simple fact that I object to someone stealing my TV and selling it from the trunk of their car does not mean that I have a problem with the folks working at Best Buy.

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The term "illegal immigrant" tells you that we are taking the wrong approach; the very idea that we would use such a term. The law an "illegal immigrant" is breaking is that he does not have the proper piece of paper. When my grandmother and my great-grandmother came here from Italy, without papers [[since the Italian government was not giving such papers freely), they were classified as "undocumented aliens".

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Whether or not their home country issues a certain document has very little bearing on how welcome an immigrate is in the Unites States. Those documents simply determine whether or not someone is able to emigrate from their home country; not how welcome they are here once they arrive.

Cuba, for example, hasn't issued the proper piece of paper to anyone wanting to head to the United States in decades. Regardless, there is still a large group of Cuban Americans who are welcome here.

The controlling question as to how welcome they are upon arrival is whether or not they complied with our laws.

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Originally Posted by Fnemecek

The controlling question as to how welcome they are upon arrival is whether or not they complied with our laws.

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What part of legal immigration don't you understand?

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Originally Posted by Augustiner

What part of legal immigration don't you understand?

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I understand every part of legal immigration just fine.

As for the flowchart that you linked to, I have to ask: what part of the U.S. allows in more immigrants per year than almost any nation on Earth don't you understand?

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Originally Posted by Fnemecek

I understand every part of legal immigration just fine.

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The question wasn't directed at you, it's just the title of the flowchart. I wanted to post it directly into the thread, but it's a huge image and I didn't want to screw up the formatting of the site.

Are you saying that the number of immigrants who enter the United States every year relative to other countries is somehow relevant to the critique of our immigration laws presented in the flowchart? I'm not sure I understand.

The number of people who enter the U.S., relative to other countries, is relevant for a critique of this nation's immigration laws for two reasons.

First, it refutes the oft repeated assertion that those of who oppose illegal immigration are somehow anti-immigrant. We welcome more immigrants than almost any nation on Earth yet some folks say that we don't like immigrants. That argument simply makes no sense.

Second, it puts immigration in context. Immigration law is complicated, both in the U.S. and elsewhere. The fact that so many people are making it though the system legally, however, establishes that it does work.

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Originally Posted by Fnemecek

The fact that so many people are making it though the system legally, however, establishes that it does work.

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I'm still not getting how this conclusion follows from your premises. Just because a lot of people make it through the system doesn't mean that the system works well, or that it doesn't need to be improved.