You’ll never change us, outsiders! (Cascadia exists #5)

On the Cascadian Calm post, there are a handful of comments worth responding to. Here’s my first shot, which is mostly just a bunch of adding and subtracting.

First, from Anonymous:

…people are becoming aware of the “Seattle Freeze”, and as out-of-towners slowly take over the NW area.

Second, from Kim Bannerman:

There are far more transplanted people here in the Seattle area than
ever before. We’re not going away, Seattleites. Time to embrace the
change/different people and see that as a positive thing that makes your
life richer! We all have gifts and bring different things to share,
after all.

So, the claim is that all the outsiders coming in will eventually overwhelm natives (and people that have acclimated) to make us more open to your Southern charmy or otherwise not Cascadian Calm ways.

But, the number just don’t add up.

First, in Washington, a state with a population of just less than 7 million, here is a chart showing natural growth (births) versus migrants:

 

Certainly there have been eras of massive migration into both states. The 90s were very good to us in terms of getting new people here. But, The chart overall is pretty volatile and in the last few years in Washington have been some of the worst for migrants compared to natural births.

I’ll refer you back to the general population numbers. Even in the days of 50,000 plus migrants a year coming into Washington, they were hardly a drop in the bucket compared to our overall population. You may come here, but in terms of you getting together with your migrant friends and changing our culture? The numbers just don’t add up.

Let’s get back to one of my points in the original post, that the so-called Seattle Freeze (Cascadian Calm) is really a eye of the immigrant sort of thing. It really only exists in the eye of the new comer. That you start to see references to the Freeze in the 1990s (when post Boeing Bust migration peaked) certainly backs this up.

Also, Kim’s point about “embracing change” is well heard. We do embrace change, we are (along with Georgia) one of the most open regions, personality wise. We just don’t get all up in your face about it.