Great Column from Post-Dispacth: St. Louis Needs More Immigrants

I completely agree with this column from the Post-Dispatch:

http://www.stltoday.com/business/columns/david-nicklaus/article_61ec7841-e0a9-5f90-9654-0aa2f91d5e88.html

Clearly, St. Louis has some assets it can leverage. The International Institute, which provides a variety of services to immigrants, sponsored 6,000 Bosnian refugees in the 1990s. They spread the word to friends and relatives, and now an estimated 70,000 Bosnians call St. Louis home.
They have bought homes and started businesses. They stabilized a broad swath of the city and have begun to move to the suburbs. In short, they've done what waves of German, Irish and Italian immigrants did before them.
But for at least 60 years, from the 1920s to the 1980s, St. Louis had no noticeable influx of foreign-born residents. It's no coincidence that the city lost population and, during the latter half of that period, the region's economy stagnated.

I recommend you read the whole column. While it focuses on the entrepreneurial aspects that immigration brings, I'd add another as well: adding cultural diversity. The reason South City is my favorite part of St. Louis is because the presence of Latin American, Asian, and Middle Eastern immigrants bring a little more variety - especially in terms of restaurants and grocery stores - to the world of St. Louis. Attracting immigrants to St. Louis would be a great thing for the city to pursue.