With hate crimes on the rise, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2024's Most Diverse Cities in America as well as expert commentary, to identify the places where people have the most unique blend of perspectives.
To determine the places in the U.S. with the most mixed demographics, WalletHub compared the profiles of more than 500 of the largest cities across five major diversity categories: socioeconomic, cultural, economic, household and religious.
Expert CommentaryIs there a relationship between diversity and economic growth in cities?"In increasingly diverse societies, people learn to adapt to interacting with people from different backgrounds. One way this might be related to economic growth is through economic interdependence. More racially diverse neighborhoods display more prosociality, which suggests that they may also be more economically dependent on one another. In other words, people rely on others (many times from different racial/ethnic backgrounds) for mutually beneficial transactions. This type of behavior should foster economic growth overall. With globalization and increased immigration in this country, social cohesion will be necessary to continue a healthy financial market."Chanel Meyers, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor, University of Oregon "On the positive side, diversity growth in ethnic compositions may mean a large supply of labor for the city, greater markets for city businesses, and opportunities for new businesses to start to provide needed diverse resources for the population. Diversity growth can also help to propel the expansion of job opportunities in many areas of the city economy and public organizations (such as more job opportunities for nurses, teachers, police officers, etc.), and it may also contribute to the overall prosperity and longevity of the city. As the city gets older, the expanding diverse populations of new arrivals and their children become the new labor force in the city, thereby sustaining or even lowering the dependency ratio of the city. The lower the dependency ratio, the greater the share of income each worker keeps, therefore, increasing the disposable income that could be circulated through spending in the city. [On the negative side,] when the ethnic composition of a city grows without corresponding economic growth, this may result in high prejudice and overt discrimination across lines of difference, with the advantage of such discrimination going to the powerfully dominant population category in the city."A. Olu Oyinlade, Ph.D. - Professor, University of Nebraska, Omaha What can local policymakers do to harness the diversity in their cities to spur innovation?"Battling prejudice, stereotypes, systemic racism, and inequality must be fought relentlessly by local officials in each city. Creating local policies can only be successful and sustainable over time if they are equitable, inclusive, and accessible to all residents in the city. Successful and sustainable policies are based on understanding the needs and challenges of every local group by seeking their input and engaging them. Besides engaging diverse communities, we must empower them to report any violations, biases, and unequal treatment of local citizens. Create affirmative action programs that encourage traditionally disadvantaged groups to take advantage of housing, education, employment, and available entrepreneurial opportunities. Ultimately, policymakers can harness the diversity of their cities to spur innovation by seeking input from all residents, engaging everyone, empowering them, and creating affirmative action programs that provide accessibility to everyone so they can all enjoy a fair piece of the economic progress. Such policies can further attract top talent into the city...Retaining a diverse population in a city requires strategic planning, hard work, and resources, which must be coupled with inclusionary and equitable policies that keep them engaged and provide everyone equal access to education, housing, employment, and business opportunities. Consequently, local policymakers need to focus on diversity, equity, inclusion, engagement, and access to make sure no cycle of oppression keeps disadvantaged groups away from available opportunities."Dr. Bahaudin G. Mujtaba - Professor, Nova Southeastern University "When everyone in the room shares the same perspective, it reduces the likelihood of innovation. Local policymakers should support widespread training on explicit and implicit biases for all workers, especially for business leaders and managers. They should support cultural empowerment and exchange zones where people can come together to appreciate the unmet needs of groups living in a city. They should continue to enforce laws that prevent and undermine residential and social segregation along racial, ethnic, social class, and religious lines. They should sponsor competitions for small grants aimed at improving business opportunities in local neighborhoods. They should sponsor employment fairs featuring diversity where existing employers and firms solicit new ways of doing business from their future employees."Tony N. Brown, Ph.D. - Distinguished Professor of Sociology - Rice University What are the pros and cons of living and working in a diverse city?"A growing body of research suggests the beneficial effects of racial/ethnic diversity within neighborhood, country, and state contexts. In particular, greater exposure to more diverse groups has shown to be related to more creative and flexible thinking, greater prosociality, and less experiences with discrimination. There is indeed research that shows more detrimental consequences to more diversity. For example, some research has shown that more diverse countries tend to have lower trust towards strangers and the government and lower community engagement. However, some of these findings are mixed, as other research shows that people reported more trust and engagement in more diverse communities."Chanel Meyers, Ph.D. - Assistant Professor, University of Oregon "Pros of living and working in a diverse city include interpersonal contact with others whose identities, beliefs, and behavior differ from your own. You get exposed to new ways of seeing the world. Diversity creates nearly limitless opportunities to learn about and from others: what they eat, what they celebrate, and what they believe. Cons of living and working in a diverse city include the transaction costs of negotiating the unfamiliar in familiar settings. Individuals with rigid worldviews or exclusionist mentalities are likely to feel stressed by the amount of social change always happening in a diverse city."Tony N. Brown, Ph.D. - Distinguished Professor of Sociology - Rice UniversityMore from WalletHub
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