Immigration has increased significantly over the years. In the mid 1900s, New York City consisted of mainly Europeans. In the 2000s, however, it consisted mainly of people from Latin America, Caribbean and Asia. Immigrants are attracted to New York due to better employment, wages and living standards. In some circumstances people are forced to migrate to other regions of the world due to political instability and oppression. For example, Liberians had to leave their homes because of the civil wars taking place.
An interesting idea about immigration is that it can never stop. Once one person immigrates to New York then his/her friends would want to follow and so on. Families and friends want to stay together so they follow each other to where ever they are going, Another factor that induces people to migrate is that there are long established ethnic communities that would welcome them. For example, West Indians settle in New York because there is a long established West Indian community.
As more and more immigrants come to New York then ethnic communities will expand. What is strange about this phenomenon is that even though there will be denser ethnic settlements there will also be a rise to polyethnic neighborhoods. This is contributed to the fact of public transit runs through most of the dense ethnic communities. This mixes all the ethnicities currently residing in New York and thus gives rise to multiethnic neighborhoods.
The government also provides services that can assist immigrants in establishing a more stable lifestyle. There are a range of social, health, and educational services. One example is CUNY. CUNY is an affordable education that is offered to basically everyone. CUNY also offers programs such as SEEK that helps families with lower income. The government is influencing immigrants to not only stay but also to contribute to the society.
Immigrants that reside in New York sometimes contribute to political affairs. For example, Mayor Bloomberg made trips to Israel and the Dominican Republic to gain votes from the immigrant population that lives in New York. Political leaders are recognizing the impact of immigrants as individuals in society due to the constant increase in the number of immigrants.
The longer immigrants stay in New York the more they adapt to the American culture. People refer this to a term called the melting pot effect which is a mixing of a group of ethnically diverse people to form a new race, the American race. I personally, disagree with this concept because I think it is just another form of assimilating. Immigrants are slowly adapting to the American culture and with each generation they become more Americanized. But what does being American actually mean? Well, doing what an American would do. However, how do we know what a typical American would do. I think this idea of being an American is generated through the media. The media emphasizes sports like American football and foods like hamburgers. Doing all of these things does not make someone an American. I think just living in American makes you an American.
