By Loan-Anh Pham. San Jose Spotlight. Bay City News
San Jose is the No. 1 metropolitan area for immigrants in the US looking for a better life.
That’s according to a study released this month by the George W. Bush Institute that shows immigrants thrive in tech hubs. San Jose is classified as a fast-growing suburban area within a large metropolitan region that draws immigrants from across the country. The study defines the San Jose metropolitan area as San Jose, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale.
The report examines immigrant satisfaction based on factors such as median household income, housing status and language proficiency. It used data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 American Community Survey and looked at the country’s 100 largest metropolitan areas.
NAACP San Jose-Silicon Valley President Bob Nunez said San Jose's appeal goes beyond the tech industry. He said immigrants are drawn to the area for a high-quality education for their children, as well as economic and job opportunities.
“It’s a desire to be able to dictate your own destiny,” Nunez told San Jose Spotlight.
The Baltimore metropolitan area ranks second and the San Francisco metropolitan area, which includes San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley, ranks third in terms of immigrant well-being.
The study finds that San Jose also ranks first among the nation's largest metropolitan areas for median foreign-born household income at $136,154. San Francisco ranks second, with a median foreign-born household income of $102,953.
Dennis King, executive director of the Silicon Valley Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said a diverse community is an underrated factor and another draw for immigrants seeking guidance.
“Most immigrants in our community have essentially returned home to an infrastructure that was presented to them, either from people in their nation or from their communities,” King told San Jose Spotlight. “There are infrastructures created, both formally and informally, between a number of different service organizations, but also between people themselves.”
The study shows that San Jose is the top metropolitan area for foreign-born Asian immigrants, a group that makes up 24.5 percent of the overall population according to 2020 data.
San Jose ranks 17th among foreign-born Hispanic immigrants, who make up 8.4 percent of the overall population.
Overall, immigrants make up 39.1 percent of the area's population, more than 770,000 residents, a figure surpassed only by Miami.
The study doesn’t tell the whole story, Nunez said. Immigrant families flocking to San Jose face the same high costs as everyone else, she said, and families of color are displaced in the process.
The report shows that San Jose still ranks first nationally in terms of living standards for immigrant residents, even when the median income of foreign-born households takes into account living and housing costs.
Yet the wealth gap persists: Data from the 2022 Silicon Valley Pain Index revealed that about 11 percent of Latino residents live in poverty and saw an average drop of $404 in annual income last year. Residents say the minimum wage increases too little each year as San Jose, with the worst housing shortage in the nation, remains one of the most expensive areas to rent.
"People are leaving California, not just the Bay Area, because they find it difficult to maintain their standard of living here," Nunez said.
San Jose Chamber of Commerce CEO Derrick Seaver stressed that immigrants moving to San Jose face the same cost of living and affordable housing challenges as others in the region. He said those issues are further exacerbated by recent supply chain disruptions.
“Immigrant residents of our region have not been immune to these challenges,” he added.
Even with those setbacks, Seaver said San Jose still offers great opportunities for immigrants, including the ability to start small businesses. The study finds that long-term impacts of a large immigrant population include more startups, universities and cultural markers, such as food culture.
“Nearly every economic sector in this area has profound contributions from the immigrant community,” Seaver explained to San Jose Spotlight. “Many small, medium and large businesses in our area were founded by immigrants who used entrepreneurship as a path to economic mobility.”
Joint Venture Silicon Valley CEO Russell Hancock said Silicon Valley's tech industry draws residents from across the country, supporting both tech workers and food and cleaning workers at tech companies. Joint Venture is a research group on economics and quality of life.
“This is a very productive economy,” Hancock explained. “Technology is a huge ecosystem in itself, and it has a lot of room for… hundreds or even thousands of different roles.”
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