How 2,000 Haitian migrants changed Rust Belt town of Charleroi, Pennsylvania

Charleroi, Pennsylvania, is a deeply troubled place.The former steel town, built along a stretch of the Monongahela River, south of Pittsburgh, has experienced the typical Rust Belt rise and fall.

The industrial economy, which had turned it into something resembling a company town, hollowed out after the Second World War.Some residents fled; others succumbed to vices.

The steel mills disappeared.Two drug-abuse treatment centers have since opened their doors.The town’s population had steadily declined since the middle of the twentieth century, with the most recent Census reporting slightly more than 4,000 residents.Then, suddenly, things changed.

Local officials estimate that approximately 2,000 predominantly Haitian migrants have moved in.The town’s Belgium Club and Slovak Club are mostly quiet nowadays, while the Haitians and other recent immigrants have quickly established their presence, even dominance, in a dilapidated corridor downtown.This change — the replacement of the old ethnics with the new ethnics — is an archetypal American story.And, as in the past, it has caused anxieties and, at times, conflict.The municipal government has felt the strain.

The town, already struggling with high rates of poverty and unemployment, has been forced to assimilate thousands of new arrivals.The schools now crowd with new Haitian pupils, and have had to hire translators and English teachers.Some of the old pipes downtown have started releasing the smell of sewage.And, according to a town councilman, there is a growing sense of trepidation about the alarming number of car crashes, with some vehicles reportedly slamming into buildings.Among the city’s old guard, frustrations are starting to boil over.

Instead of being used to revitalize these communities, these residents argue, resources get redirected to the new arrivals, who undercut wages, drive rents up, and, so far, have failed to assimilate.Worst of all, these residents say, they had no choice — there w...