Portland Continues To Be Popular Destination For Migrants But Not African-Americans

The Portland area continues to be a welcoming destination for many groups - Hispanics, Asians, Pacific-Islanders. African-Americans? Not so much. They continue to leave the area, according to a new report for Portland State University.

The school's Population Research Center report - part of its America on the Move project, which tracks migration trends across the country's largest metro areas - found that while Portland grew by about 64 people a day from 2012 through 2014, about 800 African-Americans left than moved in.

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"At this point we can only speculate on the reasons African Americans seem to be leaving the Portland area, such as the gentrification of North and Northeast Portland," said Jason Jurjevich, assistant director of PSU’s Population Research Center.

"But evidence suggesting that African Americans are opting for other large metros merits a closer look; in the coming weeks we will release survey and interview data from Portland migrants to help contextualize migration trends."

There was good news in the report.

Researchers found that roughly 38 percent of all migrants to Portland during that period were people of color, compared to only 25 percent for the metro region.

They also determined that Portland is also drawing more immigrants from other countries who are young and college educated. Between 2012-14, nearly one in four young people with college degrees who moved to Portland were
immigrants, an increase from one in seven in 2008 to 2010.

"The data show that Portland continues to be a magnet for talented young professionals from around the world," Jurjevich said.

Other findings include:

• Every day in 2012-2014, about 300 people moved to Portland and 234 moved out, a net of 66 migrants each day.
• Portland continued to attract young, college-educated migrants, ranking 6th among the 50 largest U.S. cities.
• Domestic migrants to Portland came primarily from other parts of Oregon (26 percent), California (18 percent), Washington (13 percent) Arizona (6 percent) and Texas (3 percent).

Portland State says that the next America on the Move report will explore how individuals decide to move to Portland, why they stay and how the region’s growth challenges might introduce costs that disproportionately burden people of color and young people of lower socioeconomic status.

Photo Colin Miner