It’s become quite popular for city leaders in the Rust Belt to talk about their efforts to attract immigrants and international talent. And the strategy makes sense: Their populations are shrinking, and immigrants are known for opening small businesses and reviving decaying urban neighborhoods. Nonprofits called Global Detroit, Global St. Louis, and Global Cleveland have popped up in response to this trend.
But these efforts have also brought up an uncomfortable reality in Midwestern cities. Many black community leaders are not thrilled with the focus on helping immigrants. A recurring theme heard here is: Why not invest in the people who are already here? In the urban Midwest, black residents face unemployment rates of up to 20 percent.
The lack of job opportunities in post-industrial, Midwestern cities is largely responsible for an exodus of black residents, who are moving south in what has been dubbed the New Great Migration. Cities likeCleveland, Austin, and San Francisco have all tried different methods to stop the departure of black families. From 2000 to 2010, Cleveland lost 32,000 African Americans (In 2000 there were about 244,000), the largest “black flight” in the city’s history.
[For more of this story, written by Alexia Fernandez Campbell, go to http://www.theatlantic.com/bus...leaving-town/489668/]
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