The pursuit of opportunities (you thought I was about to say happiness ha), a better style and higher standard of living and yes, the pursuit of a happiness (Yes, I said it) has been the driving force of migration of people throughout the world for a long time. I would draw it back to previous millennia; however, that would most assuredly be extremely boring and frankly irrelevant. Why look at stuff that happened centuries before when Dr. Salvo has spent most of his life studying population trends and has kindly shared with us specific data on such migration events going on in our own back-yard? Whew, that was a run-on.

While I won’t draw a line back to the history of this phenomenon, I will draw a line directly to a major source of this phenomenon – please do note that this is not the only major source, it is simply one among others. It’s called capitalism and it’s what creates this high concentration of jobs, resources and other various opportunities in New York City. It’s this really awesome/ not-so-awesome system where a lot of people can be sufficiently satisfied with minimum dissatisfaction and up till now, it’s definitely working. At least compared to other systems of fascism, communism and other economic/ governing systems, it’s doing awesome. New York is a prime example of a geographical region that showcases exactly how people can thrive under this system and therefore it has become a satellite of the system drawing more and more opportunities (jobs) and resources towards it. And in hot pursuit comes everyone else. Whether from Alabama or Australia, as stated prior, people just want a better life and therefore it is no surprise that Dr. Salvo has predicted a change of 9.5% added to the current existing and growing population by 2040. It is no surprise that most people not proficient in English are in economically deprived areas of the boroughs while 60% or higher people with a bachelor’s degree to their name can be found in highly gentrified and thriving areas of the boroughs (Slide 28, 29 and 31 respectively).

Also New York is kinda awesome compared to other places in the world. Take it from an immigrant.