IMMIGRANTS AND THE ECONOMIC
REVITALIZATION OF NEW YORK CITY+

Angelica O. Tang* and Madeleine Tress, Ph.D.** 

The City of New York
Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs and Language Services of Planning, City of New York

+The authors prepared this paper for the Moral Dimensions of Poverty Conference, October 16,1999. They were panelists at a workshop of the conference, which examined the economic impact of the newest immigrants on the City's neighborhoods and the implications for inter-ethnic relations. The complete paper is available through the Vincentian Center.

*Angelica O. Tang is the Executive Director of the City of New York Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs and Language Services. Ms. Tang is an elected Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and an appointed member of the committee on Immigration and Nationality Law of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. She is an adjunct professor of Chinese at New York University. Ms. Tang holds a B.A. from Princeton University.

**Madeleine Tress, Ph.D. serves as an Immigration Specialist at the City of New York Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs and Language Services. She holds a Ph.D. in Politics from New York University. As the recipient of two Fulbright scholarships to Israel and Germany, she has done research on immigrant-based organizations in both countries. Dr. Tress is the author of many articles and essays on international migration.

New York has always been home to a substantial number of foreign-born and has a special vitality as an immigrant city. New York is not unique because of its proportion of immigrantsÖMiami and Los Angeles both have a greater proportion of foreign born residentsÖbut because it is the most diverse city in the U.S. No single immigrant group stands out because no group has a plurality of more than 20 percent. New York's demographic mix is unmatched in any other American city. It is a reflection of legal and policy changes in immigration law since 1965 and it has helped revive neighborhoods that were considered dying or dead.

Although many immigration bills have been signed into law during the past four decades, the immigrants' contribution to New York's economic revitalization has resulted primarily from three pieces of legislation: The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, The Refugee Act of 1980, and the Immigration Act of 1990. This paper examines how these laws contributed to the transformation of various neighborhoods in New York City. After 1965, by eliminating four decades of a "national origins quota," all sending countries were on an equal footing and immigrants from all parts of the world began to make their homes in the U.S. The "national origins quota" had favored northern and western Europeans. Additionally, at this time the Great Society legislation establishing Medicaid and Medicare was implemented. The new immigrants were in the right place at the right time, filling a labor shortage created by these programs. New immigrants such as the Anglophone West Indians dominated the service and para-professional positions of the health care sector. When the INA was passed in 1965 many neighborhoods were in a period of decline. From the 1950s to the 1970s large numbers of urban dwellers left the cities for the suburbs. Neighborhoods in the city were considered to be dying. After the "national origins quotas" were eliminated in 1965, diverse groups of immigrants filled vacant housing and retail space in these areas and began to change the face of neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens, particularly.

The Refugee Act of 1980 provided for the admission of refugees and asylum seekers. This brought to New York a second wave of Jewish refugees from the former Soviet Union. Their resettlement was aided by earlier waves of Soviet-Jewish refugees as well as non-profit organizations. Newcomers were advantaged by having an established community to ease their transition.

The 1990 Immigration Act emphasized employment-based immigration and sought to further diversify the nation's immigrant pool through a lottery open to citizens of countries that have provided the U.S. with less than 50,000 immigrants over the previous five-year period. The visa lottery's impact on New York changed the ranking of the top twenty source countries to New York City. It is interesting to note the diversity of the top 20 source countries of immigrants in New York City. (See attached chart.) Further of note, is that the top five source countries stayed the same in the rankings of 1990-1994 and 1995-1996. In this same period, with a net increase of 53 percent, the Former Soviet Union moved into the position of the largest source country of immigrants, replacing the Dominican Republic that moved to the second position with a net decrease of 11 percent. It is also interesting that by 1995 Ireland was no longer a top 20 source country to New York City although it was ranked 12th in 1990-1994. The immigration from Ireland, Honduras, The United Kingdom and Israel fell below the 20th ranking.

The immigrants play an important role in New York City's economy through the creation of unique entrepreneurial businesses. They also pay a higher percentage of payroll taxes, as well as Social Security and unemployment through their participation in the labor force. One third of New York City jobs are in the service sector. This opportunity, along with low-wage manufacturing has provided countless numbers of newcomers with jobs. As this service sector continues to grow in our restructuring economy, immigrants are a much-needed labor pool. Their networks have always played a role in job recruitment. In addition, immigrants have a higher propensity for starting small business, placing them in a separate job queue from native-born Americans. These businesses are in sectors as varying as transportation (vans that move immigrants to jobs from communities not well served by public transportation); telecommunications (phone parlors); restaurants; retail and wholesale services; franchises; and construction, (usually small scale contracting work that is highly specialized and ethnically focused).

Immigrants also use links to their home countries to open new businesses. The immigrant presence in New York City is vital to everyone's well being. They have attracted investment from other parts of the world and their presence has prevented investments from leaving New York. The City of New York has developed a municipal immigrant policy to help incorporate immigrants through public education, legal challenges, and legislative amendments. The City also has extensive programs for public information and services to immigrants, either directly through its city agencies or indirectly through subcontracts to community based agencies (CBOs).

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Immigrants Admitted from the Top 20 Source Countries