Los Angeles is becoming a "Third World city" with
immigrants making up half its workforce, says a new study.
A third of immigrants have not graduated from high school
and 60 per cent do not speak English fluently, the Migration
Policy Institute found.
It said this left immigrants ill-equipped to fill California's
fastest-growing occupations, such as computer software engineering
and nursing. The organisation added that as the so-called
baby boomers reach retirement age, a similar pattern will
spread across the US.
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Ernesto Cortes Jr, of the Industrial Areas Foundation, a
think-tank that specialises on social change, claimed Los
Angeles was at a crossroads.
"The question is are we going to be a 21st century city
with shared prosperity, or a Third World city with an elite
group on top and most on near poverty wages?" he said.
