A city that wants more refugees

IN COMMON with colleagues across the rich world, the mayor of Baltimore, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, worries about refugees sent to her city by federal officials—a quota that this year, for the first time, may include hundreds of Syrians. Less typically, a big anxiety for Ms Rawlings-Blake is that too few refugees will settle in her home town.

Baltimore, a once-thriving port and factory town, has lost a third of its population since 1950, dropping to about 622,000 souls. Like other north-eastern cities, it has grappled with economic decline, shrinking tax rolls and the toxic legacy of race laws which corralled black residents in districts blighted by bad schools and crime. Urban-renewal projects have brought tourists and professionals back to some districts after decades of white flight. But one of Ms Rawlings-Blake’s favourite projects—to attract 10,000 new families to Baltimore—remains a far-off dream.  

For more than a decade, Maryland’s largest city has been used as an entry point for refugees, with federal agencies led by the State Department sending 700-800 there each recent year from such troubled places as Nepal,...Continue reading

Source: United States http://ift.tt/20deU52

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