Immigrants on rise in Philadelphia

A report suggests the area could re-emerge as an immigrant hub.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — More than 500,000 immigrants call the Philadelphia metropolitan area home, with more than one-fifth of that number arriving only since 2000, according to a report being released Thursday.

The immigrant population in the region grew by 113,000 from 2000 to 2006, nearly as many as the entire 1990s, according to the report by the Brookings Institution for The Philadelphia Foundation and other philanthropic groups.

“In this report, we make the case that Philadelphia continued to grow since 2000 in a way that a lot of comparable places didn’t,” said lead researcher Audrey Singer of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program.

The report suggests that the Philadelphia area is poised to re-emerge as a destination for immigrants, a longtime characteristic of the region that stalled in the mid-20th century.

Unlike national immigration numbers, which leveled off after 2000, Philadelphia’s rate rose between 2000 and 2006. The region’s immigrant population growth also outpaced what the report — based on 20th century immigration trends — classifies as comparable metropolitan areas: Baltimore; Buffalo, N.Y.; Cleveland; Detroit; Milwaukee; Pittsburgh; and St. Louis.

All were once immigrant gateway cities that were replaced after World War II by cities including Miami, Los Angeles and Houston.

“Philadelphia’s pulling away from the pack of its peer metropolitan areas,” Singer said. The rise in Philadelphia’s immigration rates since 2000 more closely resembles what has been happening in cities like Denver, Minneapolis-St.Paul, Sacramento and Seattle, she said.