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Apr 20, 2009 11:42 pm US/Eastern
Some See Immigration Key In Pittsburgh's Future
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
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Vivismo employs more than 100 people – many of whom are immigrants themselves.
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Few subjects stir emotions more than immigration.
For years, Pittsburgh has been somewhat isolated from the immigration debate, but that's changing.
Local trade unions say illegal immigrants are taking people's jobs.
Others say immigration is the hope of Pittsburgh's future.
Unlike other cities, Pittsburgh has not been a hotbed of immigrant activity.
Even though we are a city of immigrants, our populations of Latinos and others are far smaller than cities and regions close by.
Some say this must change if we are to meet the challenges of the future.
When he moved from Mexico to Pittsburgh 10 years ago, Agustin Garcia had no money, spoke little English and had very few other Hispanics to talk to.
A decade later that's all changed. Garcia owns two successful downtown restaurants, employs kitchen and wait staffs made up of Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and Argentineans and expects their numbers to grow.
"Once people know that this is a good city where you can make a life, a better life, I think it's going to grow," Garcia said.
The Latino population in our region has grown from an estimated 10,000 to somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000.
And the signs are everywhere, including the region's first Spanish newspaper – La Jornada, whose publisher is betting that Pittsburgh will join Philadelphia, Cleveland and Columbus which all have substantial Hispanic communities.
"And you look at Pittsburgh in the middle and it's kind of like the last little area that hasn't been Latino-ized," says Brian Wiles from La Jornada. "So what we put out as a product that kind of - maybe it will endorse Hispanics here. Maybe it will be a way to find this market and find jobs."
But while some see immigration as Pittsburgh's future – a way to stem population losses and feed growing industries – others see it as a threat.
The trade unions complain of illegal immigrants taking construction jobs and don't support a move to make the Pittsburgh region more immigrant-friendly – especially in the midst of the worst economic downturn in decades.
"If we were at 100 percent employment, I could see where you'd have a need for people, but we're not," says Rich Stanizzo, from the Building Trades Council. "We have … 8.1 percent unemployment. We have probably another, I don't know – maybe 2 or 3 or 4 percent that are underemployed. Start putting our resources into getting these people to work before we start looking at immigration."
But immigrants come in all types, including highly-skilled technical workers, computer scientists and engineers, who many business people say are needed to fuel our new economy – from small computer startups to Westinghouse Nuclear.
Raul Valdes-Perez, who was born in Cuba and raised in Chicago, is just one of the foreign-born founders of Vivismo, an internet search engine design firm based in Squirrel Hill.
Vivismo employs more than 100 people – many of whom are immigrants themselves.
"There's no question that there's a huge benefit in terms of energy and new ideas for any city lucky enough to get immigrants or migrants for that matter," Valdes-Perez said.
According to the Pittsburgh Technology Council, there are 1,900 unfilled engineering and technical jobs in the region which they say could be filled by new immigrant residents if visa restrictions were lifted.
"If we don't attract and retain people who are foreign born, the work is going to get done somewhere else. It is and it's not going to be here. And if it's not going to be here, we're not going to be able to thrive," Audrey Russo, from the PTC, said.
The immigration debate is heating up again nationally with the Obama administration vowing to take the issue head-on.
Locally, the mayor and chief executive are meeting with immigration groups to craft a new regional policy towards immigration.
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