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Mapping the Where and Why of Foreign Workers Moving to LA

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The cartographers at MIT Media Lab's You Are Here project have mapped the origins of .03 percent of Los Angeles County's population: the people who were granted permanent visas to work in the US in 2012 and 2013 (the awesome interactive map also includes people who applied for permanent visas to work at LA companies, but were denied or withdrew their applications). Los Angeles County had 2,512 visa applications in those years, or 3.86 percent of all US visa applications. Workers applied from 82 countries to work in 306 types of jobs, and 72 percent were accepted.

While most applications were for IT jobs, the Los Angeles Unified School District was the top employer drawing in foreign workers, and the mix of jobs changes radically depending on the country—South Korea sent the most applications, mostly for jobs in hospitality and retail; the huge majority of applications from India (in second place) were for IT positions; and the Philippines (third place) sent mostly educational services workers. The US accepted the most applications for software developers and rejected the most for market research analysts.

Down below: maps detailing the countries with the most applications to work in LA, plus all the accepted and denied applicants. Head over to the full interactive map at You Are Here for way more details.


· Los Angeles visas [You Are Here]
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