An interdisciplinary panel discussion about immigration—especially as it relates to U.S. cities—brought together nearly 40 people from all walks of life at a recent event hosted by International House Philadelphia and Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture, a West Philadelphia Arab arts and education nonprofit.

At the Mayor’s Reception Room at City Hall, a group of three Penn professors who study immigration—Fernando Chang-Muy, Emilio Parrado, and Domenic Vitiello—detailed the differences between immigrants and refugees, and the cultural and economic benefits they bring, as well as the challenges they face, especially now during bouts of uncertain rhetoric coming from the nation’s very own president.

They talked generally at times—and in the weeds at others—about who becomes an immigrant and why, how the resettlement process works, the extreme difficulties for those who are undocumented, the most diverse immigrant neighborhoods in Philadelphia (Center City, lower Northeast, and greater Upper Darby), why the distinction between the “high skill” and “low skill” immigrant isn’t all that meaningful, and how it’s impossible to change immigration by law.

Rather, Parrado, the Dorothy Swaine Thomas Professor of Sociology, said immigration is “driven by very powerful social and political forces.”

Referencing charts of how the Philadelphia region has changed with regard to immigration throughout the past 50 years, Vitiello, associate professor and assistant chair of the School of Design’s City and Regional Planning Department, said, “without recent immigration, not only would this city and region, but every metropolitan area in the United States, would have shrunk.”

Nearly 60 to 70 percent of the immigrant population—whether undocumented or not—live and work in cities. They serve vital roles for these urban areas’ economies and enrich the culture of people’s everyday lives.

“What’s going to happen to immigrants today is very much in line with what’s going to happen to cities in the U.S.,” explained Parrado, also the chair of the Department of Sociology.

An immigrant may be escaping persecution, or coming to the U.S. for a more personal reason—family reunification is a frequent case—and typically is following jobs. A “flexible workforce,” Parrado noted, immigrants, throughout the past two decades, have settled in certain places and moved within the country for work, making them much more dispersed.

This landed some immigrants in places outside of big cities—in Alabama, Mississippi, or North Carolina, Parrado said—and the consequence of that made it seem like a “national phenomenon” when it’s still more of a local matter.

The problem, Parrado added, “is that the cities that are actually dealing with immigrants are not very well-represented in the political conversation. The cities with the more immigrants are becoming sanctuary cities, they’re going to protect the immigrants, they are going to incorporate the immigrants, and the places with few immigrants are actually the ones rejecting the immigrants more than the places that are receiving them.”

Chang-Muy, the Thomas O’Boyle Lecturer in Law at Penn Law School, where he focuses on refugee law and policy, described the benefits of immigration for the country and in Pennsylvania—where there’s an aging population and a labor force that’s dwindling.

He noted that immigrants are increasingly serving as caregivers. They’re having their own children who are excelling in STEM fields, ultimately making America succeed. They are doing the work no one wants to do—“plucking chicken feathers, picking blueberries and mushrooms,” he noted, and also starting their own businesses.

Make no mistake, Vitiello added, immigrants make cities safer, too.

“The figures and facts are very clear: communities, neighborhoods, cities, with more immigrants, are actually safer for a variety of reasons,” he said. (Cathryn Miller-Wilson, executive director of HIAS Pennsylvania, also spoke in detail on the subject. She took Chang-Muy’s place after he left to introduce former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo at an event on Penn’s campus.)

The educational and inspirational discussion ended with a couple important questions from the audience. One asked about migration within the U.S., and an international student at Penn asked about the difference between a Green Card and a Work Visa.

Another attendee asked for some suggestions on how to support the Philadelphia mayor and other advocates for immigration.

Karina Sotnik, the University City Science Center’s director of business incubation and accelerator programs, who moderated the panel, quickly responded with her first recommendation: “To vote.” An apt answer for the event, which was held on Election Day.