Mexican Immigrants in New York City

 


According to the 2005-09 American Community Survey, New York City’s population numbered 8,302,659, with foreign-born individuals making up 36 percent of the total.  The foreign-born Mexican population reached 167,166, thereby constituting 5.6 percent of the city’s total foreign-born population of 2,981,544.  From 2000 to 2009, the Mexican-born population in the city increased from 122,550 to 167,166.  Mexicans were the 5th largest immigrant group in New York City in 2000, and they are one of the fastest growing immigrant groups in the city today.

Mexican Immigrant History Timeline on Dipity.

 

The above timeline illustrates a brief history of Mexican immigration to the United States.  Due to Mexico’s proximity to the United States and geo-political relations between the U.S. and Mexican governments, Mexicans have a long history of coming to the United States in search for economic opportunities.  Also noteworthy is that in 1890, after the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act barred the entry of Chinese laborers, foreign-born Mexicans became an alternative group of cheap workers in the United States.  The Bracero Program of the 1940s and 1950s, furthermore, brought a large wave of temporary workers from Mexico to the United States.  When the program was terminated in 1964, many of these temporary workers would become illegal immigrants.  Today, Mexicans constitute the largest foreign-born population in the United States (11.3 million out of a total foreign-born population of 37.3 million), and they account for 58 percent of the estimated 11.2 million undocumented immigrants in the country (Passel and Cohn 2011).

The above pie chart shows what admissions categories Mexican-born individuals in New York City used to enter the United States between 1990 and 1999.  As you can see, the largest percentage of foreign-born Mexicans (42.4 percent) entered the country as immediate relatives of U.S. citizens.  Another 23.2 percent used the family preference category to gain admission to the United States.  Almost 20 percent entered the United States with an employment-based visa.  Mexican-born individuals in New York City used neither diversity visas nor refugee visas to enter the United States.  These data report on only legal immigrants, and cannot tell about the undocumented Mexican population in the city.

Brooklyn and Queens are home to large numbers of Mexican immigrants, and these two boroughs combined account for 59.6 percent of the foreign-born Mexican population in New York City in 2005-09.  The Bronx and Manhattan are home to 22.9 percent and 12.8 percent of the Mexican-born population, respectively.  A much smaller percentage of foreign-born Mexicans, 4.7 percent, lives in Staten Island.

According to Lobo and Salvo (2004), the five largest Mexican-born neighborhoods in 2000 were Sunset Park-Industry City in Brooklyn (8,408 Mexican-born individuals), East Harlem in Manhattan (8,026), Corona in Queens (7,862), Elmhurst in Queens (6,272), and Astoria in Queens (5,878).

The city’s Mexican-born population struggles with the English language.  In 2005-09, only 2.5 percent of the Mexican foreign born in New York City spoke only English, compared to nearly a quarter of all the foreign born in the city.  Also, 84.3 percent of the foreign-born Mexican population spoke English less than “very well,” compared to 49 percent of the foreign-born population in the city at large.  This lack of proficiency in the English language suggests that foreign-born Mexicans have a difficult integration road ahead, as English is the dominant language in U.S. society and the language required to get ahead economically.

Many foreign-born Mexicans come to New York City to participate in search of jobs.  They may not finish school or attempt to attain higher education because they must make ends meet.  This explains why Mexican immigrants in New York City, compared to the city’s overall foreign-born population, have such weak educational profiles.  The majority of the city’s Mexican-born population (57.5 percent) had not completed high school, compared to 28.1 percent of the city’s overall foreign-born population.  Also, only 2.1 percent of the Mexican foreign born had a professional or higher degree, compared to 10.1 percent of all the city’s foreign born.

Mexican immigrants in New York City also tend to be concentrated in low-wage and low-skilled jobs.  This is not surprising given their weak educational profiles and lack of English language proficiency.  While 28.6 percent of all foreign-born individuals in the city worked in services occupations, that was the case for 44.5 percent of foreign-born Mexicans.  Also, 20.9 percent of Mexican-born New Yorkers worked in production, transportation, and material moving occupations, compared to 13.2 percent of all foreign-born New Yorkers.  Finally, only 5.7 percent of foreign-born Mexicans worked in management and professional occupations, jobs that require higher educational degrees, more skills, and English language proficiency.  In contrast, 27.7 percent of all foreign-born residents in the city worked in this high-skilled and high-pay jobs.

Sources

American Community Survey, 5-year estimates for 2005-2009.

Bergad, Laird W.  2008.  Mexicans In New York City, 2007: An Update.  New York: Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies, Graduate Center City University of New York.

“Immigrants…Mexicans: Introduction.” Last accessed May 13, 2011.

“Interactive Timeline.” Last accessed May 13, 2011.

Lobo, Arun Peter, and Joseph J. Salvo.  2004.  The Newest New Yorkers, 2000: Immigrant New York in the New Millennium.  New York: New York City Department of City Planning, Population Division.

Passel, Jeffrey S., and D’Vera Cohn.  2011.  Unauthorized Immigrant Population: National and State Trends, 2010. Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center.

Rivera-Batiz, Francisco L.  2004.  “Newyorktitlan: A Socioeconomic Profile of Mexican New Yorkers.”  Regional Labor Review: 32-45.

Click on another immigrant group name (Dominicans, Chinese, Haitians, or Russians) to explore the statistical data of foreign-born New Yorkers from that nationality group.