Living in New York City means interacting with a vast array of cultures because of the ubiquity of variety. Whether it be in food, music, dress, languages or religions, the youth absorb diversity and topple ethnic barriers. This interaction occurs at schools and within neighborhoods, developing a multifaceted, multicultural youth with a “cosmopolitan identity.” The removal of national origin quotas that limited immigration from 1920-1965 led to unprecedented diversity in New York’s population. Established populations, such as the Italians and Eastern European Jews, were moving out or up, and often being replaced by Asians, Russians, Puerto Ricans, and Dominicans.
Asians long suffered exclusion from immigration waves. However, the massive reform in 1965 increased the 105-person annual quota to 20,000, increasing Chinatown’s population drastically. Under new laws, families could reunify. Immigrants from Southern China joined their Cantonese relatives in New York, and earned jobs in sweatshops to satisfy the demand for labor in the garment industry. These jobs were acquired through family networks and bosses who demanded compliance and hard work. Wealthier Chinese moved in uptown, and often looked down on the Cantonese who lived downtown. These “Uptown Chinese” bought real estate, raised rents, and financed small businesses. The arrival of banks in Chinatown signaled a movement to develop the area, and led to a gentrification that moved many Chinese into Brooklyn. Asian immigrants embraced the positive images of their stereotypes as smart, ambitious and industrious, emphasizing the importance of education. Among Korean immigrants, 67 percent of adults had college educations and 40 percent had professional or technical backgrounds. Poor English, however, limited their ambitions, leading them to transfer their hopes to their children. Koreans moved into midtown, replacing Jewish and Italian immigrants, and set up thriving business and restaurants.
“Nuyorican”, a term for a Puerto Rican in New York City, demonstrates the ambivalence of identity among Puerto Ricans in an ethnically diverse city. Music, language, and strong family traditions in Puerto Rican culture contributed to the urban environment. Economically, Puerto Ricans provided much of the labor force during the United States’ post-WWII growth. Involving themselves politically, Puerto Ricans were elected to congress, state senate, and borough councils. Puerto Rican migration declined in the 1960s, after a peak in the 1950s. Dominicans moved into the city at extraordinary rates, and by 2000 Dominicans outnumbered Puerto Ricans. Dominicans are transnational, and can hold dual citizenships. For this reason, Michael Bloomberg campaigned for mayor in the Dominican Republic to earn the vote of New York Dominicans abroad. Like Puerto Ricans, Dominicans elected many city and state legislators and officials. As old Jewish and Italian workers moved up and out, Dominican women replaced them in the factories; however, they often earned lower wages than their predecessors. Lack of unity and English speakers made it difficult to form union ties. Low rates of high school and college graduation tie Dominicans to the industrial sector, and have suffered economically as this sector continues to shrink. In non-Manhattan communities, such as Corona, Queens, Dominicans coexist with many other Latino groups, African Americans, and white ethnics. In serving in community positions, women from these groups often interact and form cultural bridges, transcending their traditional home-maker roles.
A city is a localization of the social contract, where people further individual interests in a collective society, intertwining the two through public policy. Rudy Giuliani’s mayoralty in the 1990’s contrasted with the agendas of previous mayors. Giuliani led an overhaul of New York’s liberal social policies, cracked down on crime, and decreased education funding, but not without controversy. Despite the conflicts under his mayoralty, Giuliani was championed for his reduction of crime and his response to the collapse of the Twin Towers. Giuliani’s conservative views reflected in his moves to reduce funding for welfare, Medicaid programs, and public education funding. He eliminated over 600,000 people from welfare rolls, but 90 percent of people who appealed their rejections were deemed eligible for aid. Giuliani’s scaling back of welfare programs increased the homeless population, suggesting that decreased welfare did not immediately transition to a rise from poverty. Giuliani used a private company to start job centers, and those who didn’t find jobs had to work in the public sector for 20 hours a week. Giuliani cut taxes, benefitting business, and often enacted policies that hurt departments where both workers and clients were minorities. These choices led many people to feel that Giuliani made his policies based on race. Giuliani regularized and controlled schools, disbanding the Board of Education and instituting citywide testing and standards. Giuliani often clashed with the teacher’s union and cut school’s operating and construction budgets. He was also the first mayor that supported a reduction in state aid for schools. Giuliani’s appointee to the position of special education monitor Herman Badillo became a chairperson of CUNY’s Board of Trustees, dismantling open admissions. Giuliani opposed the public display of a painting of the Virgin Mary that many deemed “offensive art”, cutting the public funds and lease to the Brooklyn Museum. Thus, in economic, educational, and social policies, Giuliani increased the presence of accountability in the social contract.
