When moving to the United States, or simply relocating to another U.S. state, major considerations need to made by immigrant families that have to do with the healthcare, school systems, taxes, affordability, as well as transportation. In the U.S., many of these factors might remain ambiguous or unclear for immigrants who have not lived in the U.S. for long enough to understand the complexities of each regional area of the country. Nevertheless, each factor is significant enough to change the overall quality of life immigrants have when they move to a foreign location.
In a previous post, we discussed some of the best places for immigrants to move to, i.e. Los Angeles, Chicago, and Milwaukee (not an exhaustive list) because of the opportunities these cities present (notwithstanding challenges), because of the fact that the minimum wage was been raised to $15/hour, and also because of the social capital and community of different immigrant groups that already live in these cities. In addition, cities like Chicago which give immigrants the big city feeling they desire beat out destinations like New York or Seattle because of more affordable rental prices.
In this post, we will take an additional look at two U.S. cities where immigration is a historical trend, but also highlighting the fact these cities might present more difficulties than opportunities in 2022 due to several new risk factors.
Let’s take a closer look.
Miami, Florida
The first U.S. city that should be addressed is Greater Miami, Florida. Historically, Miami has one of the largest diasporic populations of immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean—and has entire multiple neighborhoods dedicated to the cultures of each immigrant community, i.e. Little Havana and Little Haiti (to name a few). However, it should be noted that the rental market in Miami has skyrocketed over the past two years.
Because many remote workers have moved to South Florida in a somewhat mass exodus from the Northeast, i.e. leaving cities like New York and Boston for warmer weather—this has created a serious supply issue for the housing market in Miami since the onset of Covid.
This phenomenon has led Miami to currently be the most expensive city in the United States to live in. Last week, major news outlets, including CBSNews, published an editorial stating that Florida in general is now the most unaffordable state to live in the U.S.[1]
San Francisco, California
The average rental price for a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco in 2022 is $3,230. Although San Francisco also boasts large immigrant populations, both from Asia and Latin America, many immigrants in this city are chronically underemployed, or have difficulty accessing employment services due to a language barrier.[2] In addition, although it might not seem like a serious concern, San Francisco is particularly vulnerable to climate change at the current moment due to the increasing intensity of wildfires in the West.
