How Exceptional is New York as an Immigrant City?

Nancy Foner

Key Questions

What makes New York special as an immigrant city in the US context?

My focus: mainly on issues of race and ethnicity: how race and ethnicity are constructed in New York and the nature of intergroup relations

Focus on the present: in 2006, New York City had over 3 million immigrants, representing 37 percent of the population.

Some Caveats

I’m not arguing for an extreme regional or urban relativism that sees only ways that New York City is unique.

Yet my argument is that New York is special in many ways owing, to among other things, its immigrant history, its institutions, and the composition and extraordinary diversity of its immigrant flows.

Organization of Talk

Background on the ways New York stands out as an immigrant city

How these features affect the construction of race and ethnicity

And how these features affect intergroup relations

New York: Unique as an Immigrant City

Immigrant history: Southern and eastern Europeans a century ago; large inflows of African Americans and Puerto Ricans in the mid 20th century. In 2000s: about 90,000 a year.

The result: most New Yorkers have a close immigrant connection. Immigrants and their children -- about 60 percent of the population. Plus: millions more have grandparents or grandparents from earlier waves.

ALL ethnoracial groups in NYC have a substantial immigrant component – including blacks (more than a third are of Caribbean ancestry) and whites (about a quarter foreign-born) as well as Asians and Latinos.

New York: Unique as an Immigrant City

Extraordinary ethnoracial diversity: In 2006, the top three groups – Dominicans, Chinese and Jamaicans – were just under 30 percent of all the foreign-born and no other foreign country accounted for more than six percent.

Substantial numbers of many West Indian, Latin American, Asian, and European nationalities. And a huge native minority population.

The city’s undocumented population – an estimated half a million – is also diverse in origins, and not (as in so many cities in the US) closely associated with Mexicans, who according to one study are only a little more than 10 percent of undocumented in NYC.

Top 10 Source Countries of New York City Foreign Born, 2006

Country of Birth Number Percent

Dominican Republic 378,384 12.5 China 303,462 10.0 Jamaica 174,661 5.8 Mexico 169,572 5.6 Guyana 142,946 4.7 Ecuador 128,623 4.2 Trinidad 99,596 3.3 Haiti 91,571 3.0 India 74,476 2.5 Colombia 73,809 2.4 Total Foreign-Born 3,038,073 100.0

Note: If the USSR is treated as one entity it would rank third, with a little under 200,000.

New York as an Immigrant City

NY’s immigrant population is also diverse in skill levels: high-skilled and low-skilled immigrants are roughly equal in number in the New York urban region.

In 2000, nearly a quarter of foreign-born New Yorkers 25 and older had a college degree; 35 percent had not completed high school.

Other Contextual Features in New York

New York City’s government provides a wide range of social, health, and educational services – including CUNY, the largest public urban university in the nation with its 213,000 undergraduates. In fall 2008, 46 percent of CUNY’s undergraduates were born outside the US mainland.

The city is a strong union town.

Other Contextual Features in New York

New York’s political culture --- bears the stamp of earlier European immigration and is used to accommodating newcomers from abroad. Ethnic politics: the lifeblood of NYC politics.

Also: many political prizes up for grabs, on the city council (51), state assembly (65 from NYC) and senate (25 from NYC); 5 borough presidents

NYC primaries have been an effective path for immigrant political mobility when one group becomes dominant in a district.

Other Contextual Features in New York

An official commitment to ethnic diversity: from the many parades to parking rules.

The city prides itself on its immigrant history – and New Yorkers feel comfortable with ethnic succession.

A City that Likes to Celebrate Immigrants

Republican and Democratic mayors praise immigrants for revitalizing the city’s economy and neighborhoods.

Bloomberg at inauguration: “No city on earth has been rewarded by immigrant labor, more renewed by immigrant ideas, more revitalized by immigrant culture.” In reaction to Arizona law: “We love immigrants here.”

The slogan for the city’s annual Immigrant Heritage Week, sponsored by the Mayor Office of Immigrant Affairs, is NYC Loves immigrants

Rudy Giuliani in NYC vs. the national campaign trail.

How Have These Features Influenced the Way Race and Ethnicity are Constructed?

First: the way whiteness is seen in New York: New Yorkers don’t use the term Anglo.

Ethnic differences in the non-Hispanic white population still have a strong resonance and Anglo conjures up images of white Anglo-Saxon Protestants, a category that excludes white ethnics.

Whiteness

Also, immigrant strains in the white population have been kept alive by an ongoing influx of European newcomers.

More than a quarter of non-Hispanic whites in NYC were foreign-born in 2000. The former Soviet Union and Poland are among the top 15 sending countries.

Many native whites, in addition, are fairly close to their Jewish, Italian, and Irish immigrant roots.

Blackness

Blackness in NYC also has a different meaning than in many other major immigrant cities given the enormous West Indian community and growing number of Africans.

In 2006, 36 percent of the non-Hispanic black population was of Afro-Caribbean ancestry and 4 percent African.

One question: is the growing number of black immigrants “tweaking” monolithic conceptions of blackness?

Blackness

In addition, many Hispanics in the city identify as black – (9 percent of the NY metro area’s Hispanics identified as black on the 2000 census vs. 1-2 percent in other major immigrant metro areas).

Latinos

Heterogeneity of NYC’s Latino population – and no one dominant Latino nationality.

In 2000, in 30 states, Mexicans were by far the largest immigrant nationality vs. only 5 percent in New York State and New York City. (Mexicans 40 percent of immigrants in LA, 48 percent in Chicago, 52 percent in Houston)

In NYC: largest groups of Latino immigrants: Dominicans, Mexicans, Ecuadorans, Colombians

People from the Hispanic Caribbean may have a different understanding of the Latino label than those from Mexico and Central America. An added complexity: many Latinos seek to distinguish themselves from Puerto Ricans (about 800,000)

Asians

Asians are also diverse in NYC – large numbers of Chinese, Asian Indians, Koreans, Filipinos

NYC lacks large numbers of SE Asians, particularly Hmong, Laotians and Cambodians, like California cities –don’t fit the ‘model minority’ stereotype that tends to flourish in NY.

At the other end, the NY area does not – like the SF and LA areas – have a number of cities with an Asian majority or near-majority, where residents are well-to-Asians

What about Intergroup Relations?

Compared to other US gateways – the forces for accommodation and development of a “creative multiculturalism” appear especially strong in NYC.

NYC is not, of course a racial paradise

Racial prejudice and discrimination--- including hate crimes against Muslims in recent period. In August 2010, about two-thirds of New Yorkers polled were against building a mosque and cultural center near Ground Zero (although two thirds also said the developers had a constitutional right to pursue the project).

Intergroup Relations

But by and large there is peaceful coexistence between the groups – and many instances of cooperation and coalition building.

In general, there has been a warmer welcome for immigrants than in many other cities in the US,

NYC has been often compared favorably to LA. Update my work on this: LA has become a more

immigrant friendly environment so that that a stark dichotomy of an immigrant friendly NY vs. an immigrant unfriendly LA has become increasingly dated.

NY vs. LA

What were the arguments for why, in the 1990s, immigrants were more warmly welcomed in NY?

NY has always been an immigrant mecca and the white population is closer to its immigrant roots. Proportion of white New Yorkers who are immigrants is much larger than LA -- in 2000 [26 v. 14 percent].

NY vs. LA

The speed of the immigrant build up. Gradual in NY.

Sudden spurt in LA.

In 1960, in LA County 9.5 percent of the population was foreign born --- up to 36 percent in 2000. In the same period in New York City, the figure went from 20 to 36 percent.

Foreign Born Population of New York City, 1900-2006

Year Total population Foreign-Born Percentage (in Thousands) population FB

1900 3,437.2 1,270.1 37.0 1910 4,766.9 1,944.4 40.8 1920 5,620.0 2,028.2 36.1 1930 6,930.4 2,358.7 34.0 1940 7,455.0 2,138.7 28.7 1950 7,892.0 1,860.9 23.6 1960 7,783.3 1,558.7 20.0 1970 7,894.9 1,437.1 18.2 1980 7,071.6 1,670.2 23.6 1990 7,322.6 2,082.9 28.4

2000 8,008.3 2,871.0 35.9 2006 8,250.6 3,038.1 36.8

NY vs. LA

Also: In LA, implications of the overwhelming dominance of Mexicans and Central Americans (three-fifths) among the foreign-born.

In 2005-06, just under a fifth of immigrants in the NY area had less than a high school education compared to 31 percent for the LA metro area; close to a third of immigrant adults in the NY area had a college degree vs. about a quarter in the LA area.

NY vs. LA

Finally, the large Mexican and Central American presence in LA has led to a higher proportion of undocumented immigrants as compared to NYC

Only about one in six of the city’s immigrants is undocumented – much higher in LA.

A More Immigrant Friendly LA

But in the last decade or so, LA has become a more immigrant-friendly environment – more used to immigration. Why? The growing immigrant population and increasing political clout of Latinos have had decided effects (Foner and Waldinger).

A More Immigrant Friendly LA

The new immigration in LA is by now relatively old.

Immigrants make up an increasingly settled population in LA. In 2005-06, the average number of years in the US for all immigrants in LA and NY metro areas about the same – a little under 20 years.

Formal politics

In politics, election of Villaraigosa in 2005. The size of the Latino, largely Mexican, community in the city of LA means that the rise of Latino office holding there is “inexorable, even if it was long delayed” (Mollenkopf and Sonenshein).

NYC’s political structure may present fewer entry barriers to immigrant political entrepreneurs than the city of LA – a more traditional partisan system , larger number of political positions up for grabs, and long history of balancing ethnic interests and ethnic competition -- but a number of smaller cities in LA region where many immigrants have moved have provided easy entry points to municipal positions.

Unions

LA, once seen as an anti-union town, has warmed up to unions, largely because of the huge Latino influx.

In 2001, because of successes in LA, the national AFL-CIO arranged for LA labor leaders “to hold what was essentially a tutorial for New York labor leaders” (Steven Greenhouse, NY Times)

Political action

LA churches, civic agencies, and unions have been involved in activities, and demonstrations, to support the rights of undocumented workers.

The March 2006 protests over US immigration policy reforms drew three-quarters of a million people in LA compared to 100,000 a few days later in NYC.

But there are NY suburbs

The reaction to immigrants in suburban and outer-rim areas of NYC has not been so welcoming – more like LA in the early days of the post 1960s inflow.

Sudden growth spurt; inflow of low-skilled, often undocumented Latino immigrants; many whites have moved there to flee ethnoracial diversity of NYC

Conflicts over day labor sites, overcrowded immigrant housing

NY Suburbs

Farmingville – in 2000, two Mexican day laborers beaten nearly to death; three years later, four Farmingville teenagers burned down the house of a Mexican family, who barely escaped.

In 2008: stabbing attack of Ecuadorian immigrant by Long Island gang known as “the Caucasian Crew”

One teenager to the press: “These guys, these Mexicans, everyone has a hatred for them. Downtown Patchogue used to be nice, and now they make it all dirtbaggish.”

NY Suburbs

In Suffolk County, the crusade of Steve Levy, the county executive, against undocumented immigrants has helped make him virtually unbeatable.

Vs. NYC: a sanctuary city

What about relations between African Americans and Latinos?

In cities in southern California and the Southwest, tensions between Latinos and African Americans.

Different scenario in Miami.

What Factors Reduce African American-Latino Tensions in NYC?

First: Large-scale black as well as Latino immigration has led to a long-time demographic balance between blacks and Latinos.

Population of New York City by Race and Hispanic Origin, 1970-2006(Percentages)

1970 1980 1990 2006

Non-Hispanic White 62.5 52.4 43.4 35 Non-Hispanic Black 19.4 24.0 25.6 24 Hispanic 16.2 19.9 23.7 28 Asian 1.2 3.4 6.8 12

Other Cities

Miami: 1970: 24 percent Hispanic and 15 percent black; 2000: 57 percent Hispanic and 19 percent black

LA: 1970: 18 percent Hispanic and 17 percent black; 2000: 47 percent Hispanic and 11 percent black

What factors reduce African American- Latino tensions in NYC?

Second: In NYC, Latino groups are sometimes in conflict with each other rather than with native blacks vs. Southwest and California and Miami

Third: As I mentioned, a relatively high proportion of New York Latinos identify as black – and they may be especially likely to develop amicable ties and alliances with native and Caribbean blacks – and sometimes even intermarry.

What factors reduce African American- Latino tensions in NYC?

Second: In NYC, Latino groups are sometimes in conflict with each other rather than with native blacks vs. Southwest and California and Miami

Third: As I mentioned, a relatively high proportion of New York Latinos identify as black – and they may be especially likely to develop amicable ties and alliances with native and Caribbean blacks – and sometimes even intermarry.

But…..

Recent tensions in Port Richmond, Staten Island: spate of attacks on Mexicans by African Americans in spring and summer 2010 in area where low-income blacks, in the 1980s and 1990s were the dominant population – now large Latino population, school, once mainly black, now mainly Latino and predominantly Mexican

Sudden growth spurt of Latino population in tough economic times

Inter-group Relations and a Multicultural Second Generation

Mixing and mingling with each other and native minorities in schools, at CUNY, in neighborhoods, and, as they grow older, at work.

Example of CUNY – where the undergraduate student body in 2005 was 30 percent black, 28 percent white, 26 percent Hispanic, and 15 percent Asian.

Second Generation

Ethnic diversity for second generation young people is the expectation in New York – sometimes this can be confusing. A Soviet teenager in Brooklyn asked “where are the Americans?” “It’s hard to know what we are supposed to be becoming. Everybody here is from somewhere else” (Orleck 2001).

The Second Generation

Does this mean there is no interethnic/racial conflict among second-generation youth from different countries or among second-generation youth and native minorities and whites? No.

Does it mean that young people don’t in many contexts hang out with their own kind? No.

Nor does it mean that members of some groups, especially those of African ancestry, don’t experience subtle and not-so-subtle barriers to inclusion.

The Second Generation and Intergroup Relations

End on upbeat note: New York may not be a perfect model of inclusion --- but it does offer many optimistic signs and the emergence of a new kind of multiculturalism – and hybrids and fluid exchanges across group boundaries, particularly among the children of immigrants who were born and grow up in the city (Kasinitz et al, Inheriting the City).

Final Thoughts

Immigration is likely to continue to be important in NYC’s population in coming decades

Given New York’s history and the composition of its population, it is also likely to continue to go on welcoming immigrants who come here to make a better life and pursue the “American dream” and, at least in the immediate future, to be a city of remarkable diversity.