City’s immigrant population comparatively small

have thrived to the extent that that they attracted a wave of secondary migration of countrymen. Those who were first placed in other parts of the U.S. in refugee resettlementprograms heard of Pittsburgh’s attractions — especially its affordable housing — and leaders of the community believe their population in Allegheny County now numbers more than 5,000, although census estimatesare much lower.

Durga Upreti, 30, said friends encouraged him to move to the Pittsburgh area in 2009, a year after the international refugee program first placed him in Idaho. He and others at the time were aided by the relatively good jobmarket here — he became a supervisor for Giant Eagle — and Mr. Upreti now owns and operates the DMK Furniture Outlet on Saw Mill Run Boulevard in Brentwood, where he says half his customersare Bhutanese.

“As long as people are willing to do something, I’m seeing plenty of jobs” that fellow members of his community have found in embracing an area whose hills and natural beauty remind them of home, said Mr. Upreti, who doesn’t expect to ever leave Pittsburgh.

Other groups have settled here in smaller pockets from elsewhere in Asia, Africa and Latin America in recent years, though not with quite the same sense of clustering cohesion as the Bhutanese. The region also has long attracted well-educated immigrants to positions at its universities and medical centers, who tend to assimilate intothe broader community.

Growth of international college students also has continued, even in the fall of 2017 in spite of concerns those numbers would wane due to the Trump administration’s policies. The University of Pittsburgh has 3,236 foreign students, more than twice what it had in 2000. CMU reports having 5,246 international students, 40 percent of its total student body, and 1,200more than six years ago.

Clearly, it’s more common every year around Pittsburgh to encounter someone who may look, speak or dress differently from most Pittsburghers. It’s still just less likely than elsewhere, hinderingoverall growth.

“The challenge for us, given the high mortality rate, the age of the region, the age of the workforce, is trying to accelerate that growth rate at a level that allows us to overcome” those other factors, said Melanie Harrington, CEO of Vibrant Pittsburgh, a group trying to nurture a more diversified workforce locally. “Right now we just have a bigger hole to dig ourselves out of than other places.”