Multiculturalism In New York City

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Recommended: Introduction to the topic of multiculturalism

Multiculturalism in cities is as a result of the migration of people from different parts of the world. As a result of the ongoing globalization process, there is an increasing international migration to global cities (Robinson, 2009). Christian Joppke & Steven Lukes (1999) stated that the concept of multiculturalism is open to various interpretations. Multiculturalism can be interpreted as the tolerance of people from different ethnic, cultural and religious background in a region and the policies that accommodate the immigrants (Media & Zinga, 2004, Bloemraad, 2011) as in cities like Toronto. A multicultural city can be defined as a city where people of different nationalities, religious beliefs, and cultural/ethnic backgrounds live together within the same society (Kanpol & Mclaren, 1995). New York can be seen as a multicultural city because of its large population of immigrants. Most of these immigrants are attracted by the city’s economic opportunities, thus New York City’s multiculturalism is tied to its economy. Although, New York City celebrates diversity, there are still income inequalities and job segregation against immigrants.
New York City was a hub for immigrants and it still is today. About one-third of the city’s total population of 8 million is foreign born (nyc.gov, 2014). About 800 different languages are spoken in New York (nyiac.org, 2014). The city served as the historic port of entry for southern and eastern European immigrants such as the Russian Jewish, Italians, Germans and Irish (Foner, 2007). The newest wave of immigrants is no longer predominantly Europeans as the city has continued to attract a significant number of people from all parts of the world such as Asians, Latin Americans and Africans (Fon...

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As a result of job segregation, immigrants have formed occupational niches in order to support each other. Occupational niche means that high numbers of members of specific ethnic groups dominate a particular employment sector category (industry based and/or occupational)(Wilson, 1999). Ethnic niches demonstrate the connection of occupational skills and New York City’s multiculturalism. In New York City, specific ethnic groups dominate certain jobs. For instance, most of the diamond dealers in New York City are Hasidic Jewish (reference), nanny jobs are dominated by the Filipinos and in downtown New York City, the Koreans run most of the convenience stores. Occupational niches have contributed to co-ethnic employment opportunities (Waldinger, 1996a) as a result of networks that are created by social ties such as family, cultures, religion and race (Wilson, 1999).

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