Asian Immigration:
Immigration reform in 1965 led New York City’s immigrant population to grow substantially, and by the 1990s there was greater variety of cultures than ever, including Caribbean, East
Asian, Latin American and Russian. New York’s immigrant groups challenged the city socially due to various conflicts that arose among them.
As New York natives fled to the suburbs, immigrants acted to revamp and revive bleak neighborhoods, like the way Russian Jews changed Brighton Beach’s demographic after a first wave in 1979 and a second wave after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989 sent many Russian Jews to America. Luckily, their backgrounds facilitated learning English and getting work in a post-industrial economy.
For Asians, things were not as easy. The Chinese were the first immigrant group to suffer exclusion, which lasted from 1882 to 1943. They were not allowed in a lot of occupations, so they had to do their business in an underground way by running restaurants and laundries. They also remained outside of American politics because they were prohibited from becoming citizens.
But in 1965, Chinatown’s population exploded. While they got work easily, it was mostly cheap and harsh labor in factories. As other Chinese peole immigrated from Hong Kong and Taiwan, they scorned the less educated and poorer migrants, and tended to move uptown and away from Chinatown. These well to-do Chinese brought money that spurred construction of apartment buildings in and around Chinatown, which led to controversial gentrification of the area, and a lot of poorer Chinese moved out to Brooklyn and Queens.
Chinese Americans began to organize politically after they were allowed to become citizens in 1943. In 2009, John C. Liu became the first Chinese American citywide official, and two immigrants from Hong Kong were elected to the City Council. But as the community grew economically and politically, it faced difficult and unfair stereotypes.
Many Koreans and Chinese had college educations and technical or professional careers in their home countries, but when they immigrated to America, they lost their titles. Therefore, many parents pushed their children in the direction of college and professional or technical careers. This led many working class Chinese and Koreans who were limited by their socioeconomic statuses to feel ashamed because they couldn’t fulfill their parents’ goals set for them.
While most well to-do Koreans refused to live in Korean communities, their presence in Flushing, Queens became increasingly apparent. Eventually, Koreans formed business associations to protect their interests as they faced dislike from Europeans and Chinese in Flushing. Although we tend to group all Asian cultures together, their differences and complicated histories make alliances and relations between Asian groups difficult.
Latin American Immigration:
Puerto Rican immigrants are another prominent immigrant group in New York City. They enriched the city with their culture, music, and strong family traditions. They also became a political force when Herman Badillo became the city’s first Puerto Rican Borough President and congressman, and when Olga Mendez became the country’s first female Puerto Rican legislator in 1978.
Tensions rose between the Puerto Ricans and Dominicans as Dominicans became the largest group of immigrants to settle in New York. Despite their transnationality, Dominicans became avid participants in local politics by creating strong community organizations and electing their first city councilman in 1991.
Their economic experience, however, has been varied, especially for Dominican women. They filled the demand for factory workers, but were restricted by low wages. But in general, earning wages helped Dominican women become more prominent parts of their families, especially because they formed social networks to help them cope with the difficulties of life.
Women also play an important role in the Dominican community of Corona, Queens, as they acted to culturally bridge their own culture with those of other Latinos, African Americans, and Europeans. They did so by forming alliances and social congregations within their neighborhood, and went beyond their typical maternal roles.
The West Indian American Carnival promotes pan-ethnicity, which unites people from different countries. But just like other ethnic groups, West Indian immigrants have faced issues in American since their first significant migration in the 1920s during the Harlem Renaissance. West Indians are classified as black in America, but had a tendency to feel superior to African Americans because of their British background and accents. Therefore, success of West Indians in business and professional sectors led to resentment by African Americans.
However, these tensions diminished during the civil rights era, and some West Indian candidates won elective office in African American communities. West Indians became aware of the fact that racial prejudice effected them as much as African Americans when West Indian men were murdered in Howard Beach, Queens in 1986 and Bensonhurst, Brooklyn in 1989. These tragic events strengthened the feeling of common cause between them.
Rudy Giuliani:
While mayor LaGuardia promoted the expansion of public service and freedom of expression, Rudy Giuliani advocated to privatize public services. He believed that public programs and services promoted laziness, and was the first mayor to request that New York State reduce funding for Medicaid and welfare programs.
He eliminated 600,000 people from the welfare rolls, but the state soon realized that he was denying deserving recipients of food stamps, Medicaid, and other services. An increase in homelessness showed that less people on welfare did not mean less poverty.
He then required any able bodied adults on welfare to work for their stipends. Some thought this was a great idea and would increase incentive to work, but others found it to be totally heartless. Plus, since the requirement to work while on welfare also applied to college students, over 16,000 CUNY students were forced to drop out, which countered their attempts to get out of welfare.
Giuliani’s tax cuts that helped big businesses, budget allocations for wealthy private institutions, and tax breaks for big corporations made matters worse for the poor and working class people of New York. Furthermore, in the school system, he shifted supervision of school security to the NYPD, instituted citywide testing, and attempted to disband the Board of Education. He increased spending on books and computers, but cut spending on schools’ operation and construction.
When Giuliani appointed Herman Badillo as special education monitor, things became progressively more conservative in the school system. They both advocated merit based payment for teachers, standardized testing, and student uniforms, all as a part of the “standards movement” that became very popular throughout the country in the 1990s. When Badillo became chairperson of CUNY’s Board of Trustees, he helped end their policy of open admissions in 1999.
Giuliani displayed his conservative nature once again when he attempted to censor art at the Brooklyn Museum because he felt it was “anti-Catholic.” City Council President Peter Vallone declared that he was abusing his power. The Brooklyn Museum sued the city in federal court and won. Giuliani also attempted to limit the freedom of the press by refusing to give interviews to even city and public officials, so they had to sue in order to obtain information about city agencies. Furthermore, he limited what groups and how many could protest in City Hall Park.
When the attacks on the World Trade Center occurred on September 11th, 2001, Giuliani’s response involved imparting strength and calm upon the shaken city. He expressed great sympathy for those killed in the attacks and even attended funerals. While, in comparison to LaGuardia, Giuliani limited people’s freedoms, attacked the education system, and cut social services that helped poor people, he may be viewed as better than LaGuardia simply because he became the paragon of patriotism after 9/11.
