Immigration Boom Towns Are Now Ka-Boom Towns

From Forbes:

Forget Miami, Los Angeles and New York–America`s newest immigrant capitals are the country`s recent boom towns.Top of the list: Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., with a 122% increase in its foreign-born population from 2000 to 2007, according to a Brookings Institution analysis of U.S. Census Bureau information. …

Just as it`s easy to spot America`s boom towns by looking at where immigrant growth has increased the most, the places where the bubble has burst are also instantly recognizable. Case in point: Cape Coral, Fla., where 28% of the metro area`s working immigrant community worked in construction-related jobs in 2007. Now that the Real Estate party`s over, Cape Coral-Fort Myers is one of the worst places to ride out the economic storm.

The situation is much the same in Las Vegas, which ranks No. 4 on our list. It has been one of the fastest-growing cities in America in terms of gross domestic product (67% increase from 2001 to 2006) and foreign-born population (65% increase from 2001 to 2007). Census Bureau data show 58% of Sin City`s working immigrants held vulnerable construction or service-sector jobs.[America`s New Immigrant Capitals, By Brian Wingfield and Jewel Edwards, October 24, 2008]

So, we had this stupid housing bubble creating lots of construction jobs in boom towns like Las Vegas. But actual American citizen workers didn`t even much get in on the benefits of having those jobs building unneeded McMansions in the desert because we let in millions of immigrants who would do those jobs for $5 or $10 less per hour.