In practice, that will mean a keener educational focus on the recent immigrants who are fueling the growth of cities like Lawrence - perhaps with even more support for charter schools, some of which have achieved remarkable results with Hispanic children.
Population changes between 2000 and 2010 suggested a few key factors in the growth of US cities with less than 200,000 people. One was a warm climate - a factor that doesn’t apply here in Massachusetts. Another was a high education level; cities where a quarter or more of adults had college degrees grew much faster than less-educated cities. It’s easy to imagine educated hipsters flocking to dense but manageably sized cities in pursuit of a cool night out.
Still another factor was a sizeable Hispanic population. The United States is becoming increasingly Latin. A city like Lawrence - where more than a third of the population is foreign-born and almost three-quarters are Hispanic - provides new immigrants with the comfort of ethnic enclaves and the ability to get around without a car.
When education and immigration are well-balanced, both forces help cities thrive. The foreign-born can be a bridge to the global economy. In mid-sized, Northern-tier cities where more than a quarter of adults have college degrees, incomes are 45 percent higher than in less well-educated cities.
Larger cities, like Boston and New York, can comfortably combine well-educated elites and poorer new arrivals. The peril of mid-sized cities is that they can become monocultures. If they become boutique towns that house only the well-educated, then they do little to spread prosperity. If they become isolated enclaves of poorer immigrants, they may lack the resources that enable opportunity.
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