[BrinChi]

Interesting WBEZ piece on history of migrants in Chicago:

https://www.wbez.org/stories/migrant...7-ec93c2a9af34

Fernández said she would be surprised if Chicago is able to retain these thousands of migrants long-term, considering that growing economic inequality has increasingly made the city inaccessible to the working class that once flocked to Chicago in droves in the 20th century.

A 2022 UIC Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy report analyzing population trends found that “as Chicago’s population declines, working class families are leaving the region and are being replaced by a smaller number of residents holding high-paying white collar occupations and with higher levels of education.”

“Rather than a land of opportunity,” Chicago “is increasingly a land for the privileged,” the report said.

To Scarborough, the moment presents an opportunity for Chicago to learn from its past and course-correct for the future.

“Clearly, Chicago has much more to offer than the places that these asylum-seekers are fleeing. But the question that remains is, is Chicago and the city itself going to repeat some of the mistakes that it made in the past that sort of laid this foundation for decades of inequality to continue in Chicago?” he said. “Or is it going to set a different foundation that’s one rooted in support and investment of new residents in the city that can not repeat the past and change things a little bit?”