The View From Your Recession

A reader writes:

I live in two places. I'm from San Antonio, Texas and I go to college in Beloit, Wisconsin. The difference couldn't be clearer. Beloit, already in decline, was hit hard by the recession when a GM plant closed in nearby Janesville. San Antonio, on the other hand, seems to be taking this all in stride. Every time I return from school there's some new building or construction site. The population is, as far as I know, still growing. I'm sure people here have been hurt by the recession, but my sense is that San Antonio is doing all right, especially compared with my Rust Belt college town. My current theory puts the difference down to San Antonio's high immigrant population.