Aliza Lieb

From The Peopling of New York City: Indian Communities

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The Neighborhoods: Lifestlye and Economy

Flushing: While the neighborhood of Flushing, Queens used to be primarily Italian and Greek, it is currently home to many Indian immigrants, as well as many Chinese, Koreans, Pakistanis, Sikhs, and Afghans. The Indians, Chinese, and Koreans were drawn to Flushing for the extremely cheap rents for apartments and storefronts and for the easy accessibility to Manhattan, and quickly filled up the neighborhood. Immigrants and natives alike can simply take the 7 train, the Long Island Railroad, and a number of buses to get to where they need to go throughout New York City. One major issue between the Indians and the other Asians that live there is that of the overdevelopment of downtown Flushing. This has resulted because the Asian Americans have been taking over homes and businesses of long-term Indian, Hispanic, and black residents, building new and expensive luxury condos and monopolizing the businesses.

Elmhurst: The neighborhood of Elmhurst is highly concentrated with Indian immigrants, as well as large numbers of Chinese, Colombians, Koreans, Filipinos, Dominicans and Ecuadorians. Newspapers can be found in a myriad of languages, including Polish, Arabic, Sanskrit, Gujarati, Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Greek and Bengali. While the Indian immigrants get along fairly well with their polyethnic neighbors, Indians from Guyana, South America, and the Caribbean are not met with welcoming arms, as the native Indians (and they themselves) do not necessarily consider them to be genuine Indians. Because they are not particularly welcomed in the flourishing Indian communities of Elmhurst and Flushing, they choose to settle in Richmond Hills of Queens instead. While Elmhurst may be quite similar to Jackson Heights and Flushing in many ways, Elmhurst does not contain one highly concentrated area of Indian immigrants, but rather can be found living amongst the other ethnicities as well. They live in the same apartment buildings, or live next door to each other in houses, and on the same block, you can find Indian spice shops, Chinese food markets, Colombian coffeehouses, and Korean bakeries.

Jobs: Indian immigrants in Jackson Heights and other neighborhoods such as Elmhurst, Forest Hills, Hillside and Flushing are relatively successful finding work in medical fields, scientific research and teaching, engineering, computing, and finance. Others have become successful entrepreneurs running both small, family-run shops to large manufacturing firms and international investment corporations. Many Indian immigrants run groceries, electronic or appliance shops, and can be found working in practically every level of New York’s eco nomy, ranging from esteemed well-paying occupations to working-class and minimum wage jobs. Many Indians also work in the taxi-driving business, garment industry, newsstands, and the diamond trade.