Little Egypt is a multiethnic neighborhood in Steinway St between 28th Ave and Astoria Blvd in Astoria, Queens. In conducting various interviews with storeowners and employees, we discovered that age and ethnicity affects the level of importance given to language within neighborhood interactions. That is, when older generations interact with different ethnicities they tend to use a common language, which differs from their own, only when it is absolutely necessary. They tend to interact with people depending on their ethnicity and not their ability to communicate in a common language. The younger generations however, cross this linguistic and ethnic barrier by using English as a means to interact with one another. For this age group, ethnic and linguistic differences are undermined by the fact that they endeavor to communicate with one another. Nevertheless, strong ethnic identity and pride most often obstruct interactions in general, even when everyone is capable of speaking one common language.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A0z7X5Afn4?rel=0]*Abstract by Odette Colangeli, Sara Clemente
In the presentation by the director of the City Planning Department’s Population Division, Joseph Salvo, that we saw at the beginning of the semester, we learned that New York has become a major destination for internal migrants within the United States, which helped to account for the population growth in the city. In the year 2000, 60,000 people migrated to NYC from the other states; by 2010, that number had grown to 80,000 migrants. Additionally, the number of people who migrate from the city has dropped from 360,000 to 205,000 within this same time span. Both of these facts have contributed to the population increase to over 8.4 million in the past few years. In contrast, the number of immigrants has decreased by 6,000 annually in the same time span.
These internal migrants are different than the immigrant population in that they are generally younger and tend to live in “non-family” households more often–that is, they live alone or with unrelated roommates. Immigrants whom they interviewed for this article (one of whom moved specifically to Astoria) expressed that the city has more opportunity than other parts of the country. They tend to come from other parts of New York, New Jersey, California, and Pennsylvania. Though the focus of our class is on immigrants from other countries, who have so determined the cultural, ethnic, and political diversity of the city, it is interesting to examine the motivations and situations of those who elected to come from other parts of the United States.
Erik Grimmelmann, CEO of NY Tech Council, speaks about the need for immigration reform concerning the admission of professionals in the technology industry to sustain its development in New York. In the article, entitled “Why New York’s Technology Sector Needs Immigration Reform”, Grimmelmann argues that New York’s immigration laws for giving out work visas are antiquated and will not be able to accommodate the growing need for professionals in what is now the second largest driver of New York’s economy. In just five years, the number of jobs grew 11%, which added $5.8 billion in wages to NY’s economy. While he acknowledges that further growth could be supported by better education in the native population, he claims that attracting immigrants to these jobs could spur economic growth, at least on a short-term level.
The existing immigration laws have been in place since 1990, just before this sector came to be so significant with the explosion of technological advancement. Grimmelmann claims that with a projected gap of 200,000 workers by 2018, we need to make visas more easily available to professionals with advanced degrees, students seeking professional degrees in these fields, and entrepreneurs (who are significantly more likely to start businesses than native-born residents) involved in these fields.
Hello! My name is Marielle Ray. I am undecided in my major, but I will probably be pursuing English and/or Psychology, and I am thinking about exploring Spanish or Human Rights as a minor. Outside of school, I love music, but my lack of actual talent makes me more of an appreciator than a musician; I love going to live music shows. I also enjoy reading. I am the third of four children, and my family lives on Long Island.
My great-great-grandparents on my mother’s side were an English (or Welsh) stage actress and a Polish Jew, who had emigrated from Poland in about 1880 to Australia and then to the United States around the turn of the century. Their son, my grandfather, and my mother each married a 100% Irish Catholic (descended from those who came over during the Great Potato Famine), so I am of predominantly Irish descent. I was born on Long Island but lived in Manhattan until I was five; my family then moved to Connecticut for a few years before finally settling on Long Island.
