Immigrants Flocking To Metro Area

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According to the [U.S. Census Bureau], counties in the Denver metropolitan region gained the largest number of immigrants from 2000 to 2006, helping offset sizable departures from those same counties.Cause and effect? Larry Kallenberger, executive director of Colorado Counties Inc., doesn’t think so.

“I wouldn’t be so quick to jump to the conclusion that ‘white flight’ is happening where large numbers of immigrants are moving to,” Kallenberger said.

“My perception is that the people leaving certain counties is due to run-of-the-mill stuff like job changes, retirement, that sort of thing.”

The estimates for 2006 are based on births, deaths and net domestic and international migration into each county. The bureau report offered no insight into where the immigrants came from or where the people who left settled down.

From 2000 to 2006, 43,748 people moved to Denver County from other countries, the report said. At the same time, 68,595 people left—more departures than any other county in the state.

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