Adam Petrella has a problem with Hong Kong nickels. "They're the same size as American quarters," he says. "People here are so new that they still have them in their pockets." It's a problem he can live with. The new faces are good business for Petrella, a street artist on the corner of Canal and Bowery streets in Manhattan's (1) Chinatown-Lower East Side (zip codes 10002, 10013, 10038). About one in eight residents of this neighborhood arrived in the United States during the 1990s; three in four are from southern China. For some, their first home in the United States is a 4-by-8-foot wire cage that costs $15 a night. Their first job is a 14-hour shift at a restaurant or garment factory. And every year, at least 110,000 more immigrants gain a foothold in the 322 square miles of New York City.

New York neighborhoods get a steady stream of people from almost every country, but five sources have accounted for the majority of newcomers in the 1990s. The top country of origin for immigrants over the last 25 years has been the Dominican Republic. The city currently absorbs about 22,000 Dominicans a year, according to an analysis of 1990-94 immigration data by the Department of City Planning. Most of them go to northern Manhattan or the West Bronx: in (2) Washington Heights (10032, 10033, 10040), for example, one resident in seven is a Dominican who arrived since 1990. New York's economy depends on this flow. "If the immigrants stopped coming, many parts of the city would have a severe problem with vacant housing," says Joe Salvo, director of the planning department's population division.

One of the big changes in New York immigration in the 1990s started when the Soviet Union dissolved. The average annual flow of immigrants from former Soviet republics to the city increased from 1,300 a year in 1982-89 to 13,300 a year in 1990-94, vaulting the region from 12th to 2nd place among immigrant source countries. Ukrainians and Russians from urban areas are the majority of former Soviet immigrants to New York. They tend to settle in south Brooklyn neighborhoods like (3) Sheepshead Bay-Brighton Beach (11235), where almost one in seven residents is a new arrival from Russia. But as the exodus continues, refugees grow more diverse. Jews from the former Soviet Union are now leaving the city of Bukhara in Uzbekistan; 70 percent of these Bukharan Jews settle in Queens, many near a strongly Orthodox synagogue in (4) Forest Hills (11375).

Most immigrants to New York City are young adults, with a median age of 27. Two-thirds settle in Brooklyn or Queens. Former Soviet immigrants are older than average, with a median age of 36. Immigrants from China -- the third-largest source country in the 1990s, with an average of 12,000 new arrivals a year -- are also older (median age 32). Dominicans are one of the youngest groups (median age 23). Immigrants tend to be young adults who come seeking economic opportunity. But immigrants are scattered through the income scale. In 1996, median after-tax household income was $26,900 in Washington Heights and $38,000 in Forest Hills, according to market statistics.

The Immigration Act of 1990 also changed New York. One provision of the law encouraged immigration from countries that had been "underserved" by the previous law, causing sharp increases from Ireland and Poland. Another section set aside more "employment visas" for skilled workers, which boosted the totals from China, the Philippines, and Israel. Also, the details of the law result in some countries sending fewer immigrants. The fourth-largest source country, Jamaica, sent an average of 9,000 a year in the 1980s, but only 6,600 in the 1990s. The fifth-largest, Guyana, sent 6,700 a year in the 1980s and 6,200 in the 1990s. This hurts business in (5) Flatbush (11226), Brooklyn, where 30 percent of newly arrived immigrants are Jamaican or Guyanese.

Ethnic succession is a 150-year-old tradition in some neighborhoods. In its time as an apartment building, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum was a home to families from Germany, Ireland, England, Greece, Italy, Poland, and Russia, to name a few. Today, street signs on the Lower East Side are more likely to be in Chinese than in Hebrew. Yet the neighborhood serves the same purpose it did in the 1830s. "The people who lived here had a simple desire-to do better," says Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. "Multiply that simple idea by the millions, and you have the spirit of the city."

Reprinted with permission of American Demographics/Marketing Tools.

Published: January 26, 1998

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