Immigrants make up nearly 16% of Philadelphia’s population of 1.6 million, according to a 2024 report from Pew Charitable Trusts^[1]. Pew reports this marks the largest percentage since the 1940s, and above the national percentage of 13.9%.

I am a neonatologist^[2] – a pediatrician who’s trained to care for babies in the neonatal intensive care unit – in the city. I’m also a perinatal health services researcher^[3] and...