RACIAL AND ETHNIC SHIFTS IN THE METROPOLITAN AREA

Y.P.

Increases in immigrant population in New York have made the Latino population the leading minority in the city. The living situations for Latinos before the 1980’s, Latinos concentrated in places such as Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan, mainly East Harlem and the Lower East Side where there were affordable housing and job opportunities. Although in the 1980’s an influx of Dominicans began to move out of New York City to places such as Rockland County, there was still a trend of Dominicans moving to places such as Washington Heights. Which raises the question, why did Dominicans move to the United States and more specifically move outside of the convenience of the Bronx and Brooklyn to the suburbs?  I argue that the stereotype of “white suburbia” is false and provide evidence to why there was and still is an increase of Dominicans in suburban? New York state, specifically Rockland County. The reason is due to governmental setbacks in the Dominican Republic, similar to the immigration of Puerto Ricans in early 20th century and the shift from a Keynesian economy to a Neo-Liberal economy under the Reagan Administration.  

There are preconceived notions that suburbs were mainly for white families because of “white flight” in early to mid 20th century, although one must acknowledge that in the mid-twentieth century suburbs were exclusive to whites. However, Michael Jones-Correa writes in his article that suburbia is considered a place for all ethnicities, especially for Latinos in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Jones-Correa states, “So as immigration increased through the last decades of the twentieth century, suburbia rapidly became more multi-ethnic”(184). The rise of multiethnic suburbia is because of the growth of Latino in the United States. The chart below shows the Latino population is the second highest ethnic-racial group behind Whites in Rockland County according to the 2010 census. While Dominican immigration began in the early twentieth century, the reason for the newest influx of Dominicans coming to New York and the suburbs is because of the fall of the Trujillo Regime, a time where the country was living under a dictatorship. The eventual end of the dictatorship in the late 60’s led to instability of the government and economy in the country.

https://pad.human.cornell.edu/profiles/Rockland.pdf

Immigrants of any ethnicity would live in an area where jobs are needed and during the 1980’s jobs moved to the suburbs, like Rockland County because of economic shifts in the United States, but more specifically New York. Neo-liberal goals are to divest, privatize and deregulate and in some cases the priority is downsizing large manufacturing and increase the small businesses. The deregulation of large manufacturing in the cities during the Reagan Administration would force manufacturing jobs outside of New York City, compelling Latinos to move as well. Therefore, a connection can be made where when whites moved to the suburbs for new opportunities, such as new housing development, Latinos moved to the suburbs as well, but for job opportunities. Saskia Sassen states, “an effect of spatial recomposition that started with the fragmentation or disappearance of larger enterprises in the center of the metropolitan area and growth of smaller companies in Manhattan’s outer ring” (104). The employees of the companies moving into the outer ring of the metropolitan area are mostly Latino since for immigrants’ factory working jobs in the 1980’s were the only careers they can find when coming to the United States. Although, today other jobs include working in service or construction. This factors into the reason Dominicans moved to outskirts of New York City such as Rockland County because of the job opportunities. Examples of employment opportunities in Rockland County would be Interco Production Corporation where makeup products are made and Lighting Company where commercial lamps are made. Recently, since the opening of the Palisades Center Mall nearly twenty years other opportunities have surfaced, such as janitorial work and sales representation in stores. Therefore, the deregulation of large manufacturing companies during the 80’s and 90’s is a directly correlated with the influx of Dominicans and other Latinos in the suburbs surrounding the New York Metropolitan area.

Works Cited

Batalova, Jenna and Chiamaka Nwosu. “Immigrants from the Dominican Republic in the United

            State.” Migration Policy Institute 18 July 2014. Web. 8 April 2016.

Jones-Correa, Michael. “Reshaping the American Dream: Immigrants, Ethnic Minorities, and the

Politics of the New Suburbs.” The New Suburban History. Ed. Kevin M. Kruse and Thomas J. Sugrue. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2006. 183-204. Print.

Fernandez Kelly, M. Patricia and Saskia Sassen. “National and Transnational Urban Systems.”

            Cities in the Work Economy. Pine Forge Press, 2012. 99-120. Print.

Rockland Country Profile. Rockland County Profile. Cornell University, 2013. pg 13. Web. 8

            April 2016.