PITTSBURGH - Colleges and some employers have been successfully fueling an effort to attract educated immigrants to the region, according to a new report.

The Steel City has been a leader in attracting such immigrants despite its inability to retain young professionals here, according to a report in the June issue of American Demographics magazine by William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. The Pittsburgh region led Cincinnati, San Francisco, Washington and Columbus, Ohio, as having the largest flow of college-educated immigrants, according to the report based on 2000 census data.

"By replacing the homegrown college graduates who left, these immigrants provide much needed infusion of 'knowledge workers' to these areas," Frey wrote. Frey said many of the immigrants are from Italy, China, Canada, Korea, Japan, India and Russia.

But Pittsburgh still is not a very diverse city, and he says the educated immigrants coming here also point to another trend. Pittsburgh is not an attractive destination for lower-profile immigrant groups, or groups settling in large numbers, he said.

"It's part of a story of who's not coming to Pittsburgh," Frey said.

"I think that people who are well educated come to stable, established communities in the midsection of the country. In a way it's kind of a secret among immigrants," Frey said. "Once that gets out, it may help to fuel further networks."

Christopher Briem, a regional economist with the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Social and Urban Research, said Pittsburgh is essentially a big college town in a state full of universities, so it's no surprise that we would attract educated people.

Of all the people who came to Pittsburgh between 1995 and 2000, 20 percent were enrolled in college, according to an April report by Carnegie Mellon University's Center for Economic Development. At Carnegie Mellon alone in 2002, 34 percent of the students came from outside of the United States.

"We try to be a big college town. Is it a bad thing that they leave?" Briem said.

Chris Hendrickson, head of Carnegie Mellon's department of civil and environmental engineering, said the school makes a huge effort to recruit internationally.

"We really feel like we're in a worldwide competition for talent," Hendrickson said. He said he believes about half the school's international students probably want to stay in the United States after graduation, and half of those would stay in Pittsburgh if they could find a job here.

In 2003, officials at the University of Pittsburgh surveyed more than 2,000 graduates from their school, Duquesne University and Carnegie Mellon, the three largest colleges in the city. Graduates who chose to stay in the area said they were attracted to the city because of its affordable housing, convenient transportation, access to higher education and economic opportunities, the survey said.

But sometimes, those things aren't enough to keep graduates here, the study found.

"Many of our minority or international graduates also leave this area, and a desire for greater cultural diversity is often cited as the reason," the study concluded.

Elie Shammas, 27, came to Pittsburgh in August 1999 to attend graduate school at Carnegie Mellon. He is pursuing a doctorate degree in mechanical engineering, but said he doesn't like the weather here, or the restrictions on buying alcohol.

"The city is kind of dull," Shammas said.

He plans to finish school in about a year, then move to San Diego where his fiancee lives. Eventually, he said he'll return to his home country.

But his classmate, Prasad Atkar, 27, also a doctorate student in mechanical engineering, said he would prefer to stay in Pittsburgh once he graduates. He said the city reminds him of his home in Nagbur, India, and he likes that the city isn't too "urbanized."

Still, he does wish the winters weren't so cold.