Immigrants give countrysides a miss; flock more to cities in the US

  Seattle, located in Washington State on the West Coast of the US, is one of the five fastest growing cities in America. The main reason behind it is the immigrants that are thronging this city to fill up jobs in fields of engineering and information technology (IT), as tech majors such as Microsoft and Amazon continue to intensify their operations. Most of the professionals in these fields are said to be from India. But in the countrysides of Washington, many rural counties that depend on agriculture and bank on overseas migrant workers, mainly from Mexico, have seen immigration numbers decline drastically. This has led to a stage where the number of Asian migrants is outpacing their Mexican counterparts quite substantially. In fact, this trend is not restricted to Washington alone as some other states in the US are witnessing a similar scenario. Estimates of Census figures reveal that many cities such as San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, etc. are witnessing more immigrants flocking to these areas than was the case ten years ago. On the other hand, Hall County’s agricultural areas in Georgia, which houses poultry farms and processing plants, and Tulare County in California, home to many vegetable, fruit and dairy farms, saw immigration numbers fall by over 75% during the years 2010 to 2015 when compared to 2000 to 2005. The story is the same in the state of Indiana as its rural areas see a sharp drop while cities in the state are seeing the number of migrant workers double. The counties that have seen the largest immigration in this decade are either technology or educational hubs. The top three counties with the largest immigration increases include San Diego County, King County in Seattle and Middlesex County, adjoining Boston. While IT companies state that immigrants are occupying the highly skilled space, letting them continue operations in America and creating more jobs for the US citizens in the bargain, people dependent on the agrarian sector for their livelihoods have a contrary view. Agriculturalists, in fact, state that the shortage of migrant workforce has made them reduce production, let crops go waste and increase pay for agricultural labour, among other woes. The upshot of this is that the technology and educational hubs will continue to need more highly skilled Indian workforce going forward. Lots of opportunities beckon Indians to the country of dreams.