From The Integration of Dominican, Chinese, Russian and Mexican Immigrants in NYC
Facts on Mexican Immigrants in New York City
Total Mexican foreign-born population in New York City is 175,875.
Comparing to the Russian, Chinese, and Dominican immigrants, Mexican immigrants have the lowest number of family sponsored admission, and the second lowest number of employment sponsored admission to the United States in the 90's.
The majority of Mexican immigrants live in Sunset Park and Bushwick (Brooklyn); Elmhurst, North Corona, and Jackson Heights (Queens); and East Harlem (Manhattan).
Median family income for Mexican immigrants in 2000 is $18,925
48% of Mexican immigrants work in the Service sector, while 7% works in the Management, Professionals, and related sectors.
Compared to native-born New Yorkers, Mexican immigrants are less likely to attain a college/associate degree, a bachelor degree, or a graduate/professional degree.
Immigration Challenges for Mexican Immigrants.
Immigrant Struggles: Poblano Migrants of New York
Services attained from the U.S. government and non-profit organization: Aids Mexican immigrants with problems arising from government papers, laws, and bureaucratic issues. Also has ties with the Mexican government of the state of Puebla and can help Mexicans communicate between both the U.S. and Mexico.
Advantages of this organization:
- Strong relationship with both Mexican and U.S. government.
- Can be used as a resource for deciphering complicated paper work that only comes in English.
- It can help a migrant solve their problems with government if anything ever happens.
- Aid to Mexican consulate so if something can’t be resolved in the consulate, a migrant has a better chance at the organization
- Conveniently located in New York City
- Since it specializes in bureaucratic issues, it is knowledgeable in that area.
- The director is relatively young and can relate to the majority of Mexican migrants that come because they are generally in the same age group.
Disadvantages of this organization:
- Only deals with bureaucratic issues and does not offer a wide range of services, such as language education or cultural events.
- Difficult to find unless a migrant hears through word of mouth or newspapers.
- Located in a small office so it cannot accommodate a large amount of people.
Immigrant Struggles: Mexican Street Vendor/ Name not specified
Services attained from the U.S. government and non-profit organization: none
Advantages of being a Mexican street vendor:
- Has a strong relationship with other Mexican vendors
- Little money needed to start up the business
- Works at chosen hours
Disadvantages of being a Mexican street vendor:
- Extremely difficult to get a vending license (she is currently operating without one)
- Easily fined by police
- Little to no language experience makes it hard to communicate with the customers and police
- Can barely defend oneself in court against police’s charges
- Cannot make enough profits to cover the day-to-day cost
- Government is of little to no help
- Cannot provide children with mental, physical, and monetary support
Immigrant Struggles: Mexican Student
Services attained from school: Bilingual classes and teachers’ consultations
Advantages of being a Mexican immigrant student:
- Materials learned in Mexico is advanced comparing to the US educational system
- Had a large community of Spanish-speaking people in high school, therefore did not feel left out
- Bilingual classes made it easier to learn the material
- Preserve Mexican heritage
Disadvantages of being a Mexican immigrant student:
- Could not communicate with teachers and friends in school
- Felt unmotivated with school (i.e. coursework was too easy)
- Did not connect to American people culturally and linguistically
- Did not feel forced to speak English since majority of friends speak Spanish and classes were bilingual
Mexican Consulate - Education Department - Edurado Peñelosa
Services attained from the U.S. government and non-profit organization: Helps Mexican immigrants get documents from Mexican government in order to ultimately get a Mexican passport and consular ID in order to be able to attend college.
Advantages of the Mexican Consulate
- Works with the Ministry of Education to get certificates for immigrants
- Helps get immigrants a basic education in Spanish, so that they can then advance to English
- Helps uneducated first generation immigrants get basic education to set the foundation for their children to pursue an education.
- Has 25 community plazas in the NYC that educate around 2000 Mexicans, generally 1st generation
Disadvantages to the Mexican Consulate
- Many Mexicans speak their own native dialect that is not Spanish so it makes it difficult to accommodate the different dialects.
- Do not have resources to teach immigrants their native language, so Spanish is second best option
- Can only issues 200-300 passports/consular IDs per day, which is not enough for the thousands of Mexican migrants that need it.
- This branch serves almost the entire tri-state area which is one million people.
P.S. 212 Q
Services attained from the U.S. government and non-profit organization: Free ESL/bilingual education for students who do speak English as their first language.
Advantages of ESL Program in P.S. 212 Q
- Located in an area with a strong Hispanic population, primarily composed of Mexican immigrants.
- Three different types of ESL classes are offered to accommodate students at different language skill levels.
- A place where young children of immigrant parents can come to further their education while learning English at the same time.
- Provides a place and means for learning the English language.
Disadvantages to ESL Program in P.S. 212 Q
- There is no follow-up on how well the program is working or how effective the teacher is.
- ESL style of teaching has remained the same, despite major changed in general education classes.
- Subjects learned in school need to be reinforced at home but if an immigrant child goes back home after an ESL class, all that information is lost once the child becomes comfortable in an environment where there is no English being spoken.
- The testing methods used to evaluate an ESL student are ineffective and do not accurately asses a student’s English language capabilities.
Our Lady of Guadelupe Roman Catholic Church
Services attained from the U.S. government and non-profit organization: none
Advantages of the Church
- Allows for the Mexican community to continue to adhere to their beliefs and have a place to worship.
- Considered a “sanctuary for immigrants since the start of the 20th century.”
- They provide masses and baptism in Spanish.
- The reverends at the churches are themselves, either Italian or Hispanic.
- The church stands as a secondary support for Mexicans immigrants, like a second family, tightly bound by their common faith.
- The church also provides nonreligious activities and services, such as blood drives.
Disadvantages of the Church
- It is a Catholic Church so it only accommodates for Catholic believers.
- Located in Brooklyn, which is relatively far from areas that are densely Mexican populated.
Most Common Challenge Faced By These Organizations
Like most immigrant organizations, the main issue lies with the language barrier that prevented many Mexican immigrants from being able to fully integrate into New York City. Since many Mexican immigrants could not speak English, they could not go to school and have the education needed for higher level jobs. Many organizations provided means to learn English, such as ESL class or providing English language courses, but because of lack of funds or inadequate teaching methods, breaking the wall that language creates for Mexican immigrants has fallen short.
