Newark Best City for Immigrant Integration

The best city for the successful integration of immigrants into American life in the US is Newark, New Jersey, according to a new study ranking the 100 biggest cities in the country. In second place was Baltimore, followed by San Diego suburb Chula Vista, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and San Jose. Raleigh, North Carolina, came last.

New American Economy, which is a coalition of business people and mayors promoting immigration reform, released the study on Monday ( September 17, 2018). News Corp CEO, Rupert Murdoch, and Michael Bloomberg, the former Mayor of New York City, founded the organization back in 2010 and it now includes over 500 Democratic, Republican and independent mayors as well as business leaders.

The report scored every city, based on 51 different measures, from labor force participation and health insurance rates to language access policies and home ownership. The study noted that two of the biggest questions behind the nationwide debate on immigration were whether immigrants are successfully integrated into American communities and what impact they had on them. Both legal and undocumented immigrants were included in the study.

The study, called the Cities Index, was released on Monday, with 17 September being Citizenship Day and Constitution Day. Attracting new immigrants proved to be vital to population growth in the highest-ranked cities, with Newark and Baltimore both likely to have seen their population dwindle but for immigrants, according to the study.