I'm not sure if cities can lobby the State Dept. on such things, but hopefully we are throwing out the welcome mat. And sadly, I don't think the refugees will be able to go back anytime soon.

btw, have you heard about the new MOSAIC program intended to bring more immigrants to the region?
http://stlmosaicproject.org/

It has an ambitious goal for being the fastest growing region for immigrants by 2020. I guess I could be sarcastic, but since we're basically at the bottom currently we just might hit that goal. But more seriously, we need to be successful in such efforts if we're ever going to truly compete.

I just had a pretty crazy idea, with Colorado looking the other way regarding marijuana law and Missouri pondering the idea of nullifying federal gun laws, what if the city of St. Louis decided to nullify immigration law. I'm sure the population would explode if we told every undocumented immigrant in the country and every potential immigrant in the world that we would never ever deport them if they made their way to our city and decided to live here/bought property here.

Like some countries have special economic zones, St. Louis would be a special immigration zone.

Some would argue that this would heavily favor low income immigrants but the salient problem here is we need to fill the city with people, even if they are low income, the majority would be hardworking and productive.

Nobody who risks everything to travel halfway around the world has the intention of being a bum.

^ Ha, you must have been smokin some of that Colorado Mile High!

I still advocate an LRA Homestead Program. LRA properties while not super valuable now, would rise in value with a rising population.

If a immigrant moves here they would be given an LRA property. Instantly roots them to St. Louis. Initially I was thinking they could require them to stay in St. Louis for 3 years in exchange for ownership but the more i think about it the more i think it'd be better to just give them away immediatly. The immigrant would be tied to the St. Louis region because you can't move land if they can sell it good for them the city can't seem to.

I like the LRA concept, but again it goes back to the discussion on other thread(s) of how you make vacant buildings or land economically feasible to do on a significant basis. I believe we certainly could achieve success if we made it a regional priority and added a dose of creativity. Since MOSAIC is bringing together a lot of organizations already, perhaps it could help tackle the problem as part of its housing solutions. North City and North County transformed through mass immigration. I like it!

I believe Missouri law already bars local and state law enforcement from enforcing federal laws prohibiting the distillation of alcohol for personal use (up to 100 gallons/year). I believe we're one of only three states that have legal moonshining for private use.

I see no reason an elected body couldn't take similar action concerning undocumented migration.

This isn't immigration per se, but a couple of nice tidbits on Hispanic leadership in the national business community:

1) Saint Louis Hispanic Chamber of Commerce was recognized as the Small Hispanic Chamber of the Year by the US Hispanic Chamber. Hopefully we won't be in the small category too long from now.
2) Separately, George Paz of Express Scripts was named top salaried Hispanic CEO in the nation.

Nice to see.

So I've been thinking about the refugee crisis in Syria, roughly 2 million people in refugee camps, and now the recent typhoon in the Philippines, roughly 4 million people without homes. I wish the Political leader of the city and state would lobby for the opportunity to absorb some of these people. But its got me thinking about the challenges of absorbing a huge influx of poor immigrants (I assume they would be poor at least for a few years).

There is a lot of underutilized housing stock but how much currently livable versus crumbling LRA properties, whats the maximum number of people the city could absorb with the existing stock.

The local job market is stable but not rapidly growing. What rate of absorption into low skill jobs is possible? Obviously an increase in population would increase demand but I'm sure there is a limit.

I was looking at the Mosaic projects strategy and basically the strategy seems to be to focus on attracting nationalities with currently larger populations in the metro area. Philippines is on the list but not Syria. I think since because the most successful influx of immigrants to St. Louis in recent history has been due to refugee populations that that should be though focus. It does create a short term problem though because of the huge burden it puts on the social safety net.

Hopefully the Mosaic project will reap rewards as I'm sure many Filipinos will be search for a new life and new opportunities. Hopefully St. Louis can be there for them.

^ How hard would it be to create a group to lobby the mayor, and possibly pay for him to meet with people in Syria and the Philippines? I bet for $50k or so, Slay and several key staffers could travel to both places and make an offer to the displaced. If we could snag 20k people from each, what an impact it could make.

There is a very old and well-established Lebanese population in St. Louis. Think Francis Slay, St. Raymonds, etc. Syrians and Lebanese share the same levantine culture. St. Louis Lebanese may be too assimilated to relate, though. I doubt many still speak much Arabic.

I would love to see St. Louis welcome Syrian refugees.

^The State Dept under the Clinton Admin was involved. This has to be Federally driven I would guess. Great thoughts though, we need immigrants BADLY.

^ US State Dept. plays the critical role in refugee immigration settlement.... I believe it coordinates with local regions on large-scale re-settlement but I'm not quite sure how regions may be selected for hosting.

EDIT: Mark beats me on the draw!

^ I understand there is a "process" for doing this, but sometimes it makes more sense to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission. This is one of those times when you have to go Ready! Fire! Aim! because the opportunity is exactly right now.

In a large way you are right its got to be primarily federally funded, but it also has to be locally supported. If Claire McCaskill, or Jay Nixon pushed hard to make St. Louis a Refugee Immigration Destination vocally supported By Slay and Dooley now you have an environment where the federal government might pay attention.

Interesting idea but have you contemplated the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars it would cost to bring them here, provide transitionary housing, language and skills training? How would that get paid?

Well I'm thinking the location of Scott Air force Base which is basically the home of the Air Mobility Command makes for an ideal hub for refugees. Humanitarian aid is shipped to these refugees on a regular basis, they could easily load the planes up with refugees on the return trip. (at least thas how i imagine it in my mind). There is no shortage of inexpensive housing here but I imagine a large building unused or under utilized building could be rehabbed into temporary beds. Could easily be a warehouse with rows of beds. Wherever it would be it probably would need good access to a metrolink or major bus route since the majority would not be able to drive right away.

There are a number of organization that handle training and job placement. Not sure what their capacity is, and I'm sure they would be over loaded if number jumped dramatically but they could be expanded based on need and funding. If St. Louis is to become an immigrant destination that needs to happen anyway.

I suppose I am just speaking into the darkness hoping someone out there that follows this forum work the vision to a level where some actual action can be put in place. Its frustrating that the Mosaic project for all its hype hasn't been very visible nor does it seem to be publicly pursuing opportunities along these lines.

wabash wrote:^Interesting. I wonder why Omaha as opposed to Minneapolis, other than it being an additional hour away by car. I've heard Minneapolis has a strong immigrant support infrastructure, and has large Tibetan and Somali populations.

No kiddin... the census figures for Minneapolis/St. Paul are amazing. Very diverse and the percentage of foreign born is much, much higher than here.