Describe immigration policy on the state and federal level
Immigration policy in the United States is aimed towards multiple goals. These goals are: reuniting immigrants with their families when some part of the family is living within the United States; secondly, bringing in workers with special skills to fill positions of shortage; third, providing political asylum to refugees seeking protection in an alien land; and finally, ensuring diversity by admitting people with low rates of immigration to the United States. The Congressional Budget Office paper outlines the categories of people eligible for immigration to the United States and also includes the latest data admitted under each category recently. It even provides estimates of the number of people who are in the United States illegally. To enter US legally, there are two distinct paths: permanent admission may be given by according the status of lawful permanent residents (LPRs). Such people receive a permanent resident card or green card. The second path is admission on a temporary basis. Temporary admission is provided by the national government to a large and diverse group of people for a specific purpose for a limited period of time for reasons such as tourism, diplomatic missions, study and temporary work. Diversity immigrants, the last group of any size, come from a variety of countries under a “lottery” system without respect to the number entering from their countries via other visa groups. The Constitution does not directly define the scope of federal power to regulate immigration, but possible textual sources of the federal power include the Naturalization Clause that addresses citizenship but not regulation of aliens and the Migration Clause that deals with slavery (Booth, 2006). The earliest debate regarding the distribution of powers over immigration between the federal and state governments arose in the context of the Alien Act of 1798. Debate surrounding this law focused on whether Congress could supersede the authority of states to regulate immigration (Booth, 2006). Proponents of the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions claimed that the states, not the federal government, retained general power over aliens. Some others suggested that states as sovereign entities possess the inherent authority to enforce immigration laws and regulate immigration. Legally, the state governments’ powers are limited only to the extent that the Constitution or federal law preempts such power and it is not clear whether the state has the ability to enact and enforce civil laws regarding immigration. Some members of Congress have proposed legislation that would confirm this authority and facilitate cooperation among state, local, and federal officials in the enforcement of immigration laws.
Compare statistics of New York’s immigration to other states
According to data published by the Department of Home Security, in the year 2007, the number of persons obtaining legal residence in the United States totaled 1,052,415. Of these, California topped with 264,667 followed by New York in the second place with 136,739. They were followed by Florida 155,986, Texas 77, 278 and Illinois 41,971 (Jefferys and Monger, 2007).
The DHS year book 2006 provides the following data (DHS, 2006):
- Persons naturalized in the year 2006 were overall 702,589 of which the majority came from California 152,836 followed by Florida 90,846 and New York in third position 66,234
- Among people who obtained Legal Permanent Resident Status 2006 there were overall 1,266,264 in the United States of whom California had 264,677 followed by New York at 180,165 and Florida at 155,996 and New Jersey 65,934
- Non immigrant admissions were of total 33667328 with California leading with 5,573,588, followed by Florida at 4,942,206, New York at 4,243,472 and Texas at 2,450,389
- New York has maximum number of tourist and business travelers with visa waiver (2, 554,878) first position in Tourist and business travelers with Visa waiver; second in the number of student and exchange visitors (143,003 – second after California)
- New York also stands second in the number of temporary workers (224871) after California.
- In the number of visiting diplomats and representatives, New York stands first at 63,416, followed by Florida at 54,653 and California a distant third at 16,834.
In 1991-2002, new comers were predominantly of Asian (31%) origin and Latin American (42%). New York was their second most likely state of intended residence after California (U. S. Department of Justice, 2002, Yearbook of Immigration Statistics).
According to Joseph Berger, author of “The world in a city: Traveling the Globe through the neighborhoods of the New York” today, New York has a stunning reputation for ethnicity in its population. He points out that 60% of New York residents are immigrants or children of immigrants and neighborhoods are being remade as older immigrant groups, like the Irish and Italians continue to live in the suburbs (Chan, 2007). Berger cited the Chinese and Koreans in Flushing, the Dominicans in Washington Heights and the West Bronx, the Guyanese in Richmond Hill, the Caribbeans in East Flatbush, the South Asians in Jackson Heights, the growing Chinese population in Bensonhurt and the polyglot mix of Arabs, Brazilians and Bangladeshis in Astoria (Chan, 2007). Hasia R. Diner, a professor of American Jewish history at New York University reminds that New York was a heterogeneous city from its founding. She says that by 1855, New York was the most Irish city in America, a hub of nationalist politics and even of the Gaelic revival. Irish women worked as maids and household servants to the wealthy and the educated among them worked as teachers. The Irish also impacted the religious landscape by bringing in a network of social and political organizations that revolved around the Roman Catholic Church, challenging the power of the Protestant Church. Professor Diner notes that Jews and Italians migrated to New York at the same period in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (Chan, 2007). While Italian migration was initially composed of males, Jewish immigration was more evenly split between men and women. Moreover, over one-third of Italians returned to Italy whereas the Jews could not return to Europe due to anti-Semitism. Italians largely came from agricultural backgrounds, whereas Jews were more likely to come from industrial and urban backgrounds. Due to their higher skills and literacy Jews soon became entrepreneurs. Both Jews and Italians worked for the welfare of their ethnic kinsmen. Profound shift happened in immigrant population patterns when the immigration law ended the quota system in 1965. Earlier, the quota system had barred most immigrants since the 1920s (Chan, 2007). In 1970, 18.2 percent of the city’s population was foreign-born; by 2005, 36.6 percent were (Chan, 2007). In 1970, the leading countries of origin for the city’s foreign-born were Italy, Poland, the Soviet Union, Germany, Ireland, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, the United Kingdom, Australia and Jamaica. By 2000, the list had changed: the Dominican Republic, China, Jamaica, Mexico, Guyana, Ecuador, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, India and Colombia (Chan, 2007). The composition within racial groups has also changed significantly. In 1970, two-thirds of the city’s Hispanic population was Puerto Rican; in 2005, Puerto Ricans represented about 35 percent of the Hispanic population, and Dominicans about 24 percent (Chan, 2007). The wave of immigration has helped New York City maintain and even expand its population.
The foreign-born population in New York City is most concentrated in its two most populous boroughs: 36.2 percent of the city’s live foreign-born live in Queens and 31.4 percent in Brooklyn, compared with 14.7 percent in Manhattan, 14.4 percent in the Bronx and 3.3 percent on Staten Island (Chan, 2007). In Manhattan, the only concentrations of immigrants are in Lower Manhattan (Chinatown area) and in Washington Heights, where an estimated 90,000 to 100,000 Hispanics –- mostly Dominicans –- are clustered. Even on Staten Island, where there is hardly a concentration of immigrations, neighborhoods have been transformed over short periods of time: In the 1990s, the North Shore of the island lost about 12,000 non-Hispanic whites and gained about 10,000 black and Latino residents (Chan, 2007). Illegal immigration is not a major problem in New York as it is in the Southwest and California. This is because New York has a relatively small share of the Mexican population in the United States. Demographers estimate that 400,000 to 500,000 undocumented immigrants live in the five boroughs (Foner, 2007).
The top three groups – Dominicans, Chinese, and Jamaicans – made up less than 30 percent of all foreign-born people in the five boroughs in 2000 (Foner , 2007). Many immigrants still come from Europe. The countries of the former Soviet Union are the fourth-largest source. Even among blacks–a group often counted as if it were a monolith–there is tremendous diversity. More than a quarter of the city’s two million non-Hispanic black residents were born abroad (Foner, 2007).
Describe why New York has more or less immigrants
New York has always been a favorite destination with immigrants mainly because of its strategic position as port of entry and also because of the increasingly welcome climate in the state to immigrants. Immigrants come in search of a living. New York State provides a great environment for immigrants to make their living. This is evident in the fact that immigrants added $229 billion to the New York State economy in 2006, according to a new report by the Fiscal Policy Institute titled “Working for a Better Life: A Profile of Immigrants in the New York Economy” , this number represents 22.4 percent of the state’s Gross Domestic Product. The report further reveals that immigrants make up 21 percent of people living in New York State—37 percent in New York City, 18 percent in the downstate suburbs, and 5 percent in upstate in 2005, according to the report (Anderson, 2007). The Fiscal Policy Institute prepared this report as part of The Truth About Immigrants, a joint project with the New York Immigration Coalition. Immigrants also make up 31 percent of people who commute into New York State to work. Fully 34 percent of New York’s children are growing up in families with at least one foreign-born adult—8 percent in upstate New York, 31 percent in the downstate suburbs, and 57 percent in New York City (Anderson, 2007).
The main attraction of immigrants to New York is that New York State offers equal opportunities to immigrants and New Yorkers. Its laws enable immigrants to start businesses, invest in New York, and work in jobs all across the economic spectrum—the same as other New Yorkers. The report also finds that immigrants are subject to the same economic forces as everyone else in New York’s highly polarized economy. A recent research finding is that over one third of all children growing up in New York State are part of an immigrant family. Alan B. Lubin, executive vice president of the New York State United Teachers says “This stunning statistic shows how immigrants and their families are interwoven into the fabric of our schools and our communities” (Chakravarthy, 2007). He also points out that immigrants also contribute heavily towards higher education efforts by serving as teachers. Over time, the report shows, immigrants become fully participating members of New York’s communities. There are many successful immigrant entrepreneurs in New York and the number of Hispanic- and Asian-owned businesses is found to be growing at a rapid rate. About two thirds of immigrants in the upstate and downstate suburbs own their own homes (McGeehan, 2007).
What adds to the charm of New York as a destination city for immigrants is that immigrants in New York City are more likely than U.S.-born residents to live in families in the middle income brackets, and less likely to live in families with very high or very low incomes. It has been found that immigrants make up a quarter of CEOs who live in New York City, half of accountants, a third of office clerks, a third of receptionists, and a third of building cleaners. In sector after sector, immigrants are found in the top, middle, and bottom rungs of the economic ladder, from finance to real estate to medicine. In the downstate suburbs, 18 percent of all residents are foreign-born, with immigrants making up 23 percent of the labor force. Immigrants in the downstate suburbs are doing better, economically, than immigrants in other parts of the state. Median income for families with at least one immigrant adult is $71,000, compared to a statewide median of $45,000 for families with at least one immigrant (the statewide median for people in U.S.-born families is $53,000). More immigrants work as registered nurses than in any other occupation. In addition, 41 percent of physicians and surgeons in the downstate suburbs are foreign-born, as are 28 percent of college and university professors, 22 percent of accountants and auditors, and 19 percent of financial managers (Kallick and Brill, 2007). In upstate New York, five percent of the population is foreign-born, but immigrants play a disproportionately important role in some areas that are key to the region’s economy, culture, and history. In universities, immigrants make up 20 percent of all professors, four times their share of the overall population (Kallick and Brill, 2007). In health care, the fastest-growing sector in upstate New York, immigrants make up 35 percent of physicians and surgeons. In scientific fields, related to upstate’s strength in research and development, immigrants make up 20 percent of computer software engineers and 13 percent of computer scientists and systems analysts (Kallick and Brill, 2007). And in farming, important to rural communities and to the cultural heritage of the region, immigrants make up an estimated 80 percent of the seasonal workers who pick the crops. Perhaps surprisingly, the three most common countries of origin for upstate immigrants are Canada, India, and Germany (Kallick and Brill, 2007). Mexico, the focus of so much public attention in the immigration debates, comes fourth (Kallick and Brill, 2007).
New York is a modern city that respects its infinite variety of ethnic groups by suspending alternate-side parking restrictions on no fewer than 34 legal and religious holidays, including the Hindu celebration of Diwali, the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, the Catholic feast of the Assumption, the Jewish holiday of Purim, and the Asian Lunar New Year.
New York also has historical advantages. Migration into the boroughs has been steady and diverse for more than a century, unlike some cities that have been surprised by a large recent influx after generations of little change. New York’s low-skilled immigrants have been balanced by an equal number of highly skilled newcomers. The city’s 51 city council seats, 65 state assembly positions, 25 state senate slots, and 59 community boards–with up to 50 members each–offer abundant opportunities for ethnic representation.
New Yorkers pride themselves on a tradition of successfully absorbing immigrants. They are proud of their innumerable ethnic festivals and parades, their settlement houses, the huge City University of New York, and their ethnic politics.
New York is a vibrant center for commerce and business and one of the three “world cities” along with London and Tokyo that control world finance. The city is a major center of television broadcasting, book publishing, advertising, and other facets of mass communication. It became a major movie-making site in the 1990s, and it is a preeminent art center, with artists revitalizing many of its neighborhoods. It is served by three major airports: John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport, both in Queens, and Newark International Airport, in New Jersey. Railroads converge upon New York from all points (Skerry, 2006).
With its vast cultural and educational resources, famous shops and restaurants, places of entertainment, striking and diversified architecture and parks and botanical gardens, New York draws millions of tourists every year. Some of its streets and neighborhoods have become symbols throughout the nation. Wall Street means finance; Broadway, the theater; Fifth Avenue, fine shopping; Madison Avenue, advertising; and SoHo, art (Burrows and Wallace, 1999).
New York City is also famous for its ethnic diversity, manifesting itself in scores of communities representing virtually every nation on earth, each preserving its identity. Little Italy and Chinatown date back to the mid-19th cent. African Americans from the South began to migrate to Harlem after 1910, and in the 1940s large numbers of Puerto Ricans and other Hispanic-Americans began to settle in what is now known as Spanish Harlem. Since the 1980s New York City has undergone substantial population growth, primarily due to new immigration from Latin America (especially the Dominican Republic), Asia, Jamaica, Haiti, the Soviet Union and Russia, and Africa (Burrows and Wallace, 1999).
All of these factors make New York an attractive destination for immigrants.
How does government of USA effect immigration in New York State? How is it different from other states
The government of USA allows states to have their own laws regarding immigration. As of April 13, 2007, state legislators in all of the 50 states had introduced at least 1169 bills and resolutions related to immigration or immigrants and refugees (NCSL, 2007). This is more than twice the total number of introduced bills in 2006. In New York, as in most states the following kinds of bills were passed: Benefit bills restricting benefits and services to legal immigrants and citizens and require proof of citizenship or legal immigration status – In particular, New York is considering a bill that would exclude undocumented immigrants from receiving health care services from a publicly funded health care facility; Documentation bills tightening requirements of documentation and identity verification; Driving Licensing Bills restricting qualification for licenses to citizens and legal immigrants; Education bills mandating that a determination of the immigration status of persons be complete before they may participate in educational programs; Employment bills prohibiting employment of unauthorized workers and requiring verification of work authorization; Law Enforcement bills requiring cooperation with federal immigration authorities, prohibiting non-cooperation, or offering enhanced authority to state and local law enforcement related to immigration; Some bills restricting certain state and local law enforcement from assisting in the enforcement federal immigration law; Licensing bills restricting granting of business and professional licenses to citizens and legal immigrants and establishing documents that are acceptable proof of identity (NCSL, 2007). Thus the government interventions mostly make life difficult for the immigrants.
Bibliography
Anderson, Phillip (2007). NY Immigrants Add $229 Billion to State Economy Last year. The Albany Project.
Booth, Daniel (2006). Federalism on ice: state and local enforcement of federal immigration law. Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy.
Burrows, Edwin G., and Mike Wallace (1999). Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. New York: Oxford University Press.
Chakravarthy, N. Srirekha (2007). Immigrants are changing the face of New York. India Post News Service.
DHS (2006). Immigration Statistics Yearbook. Web.
Foner, Nancy (2007). Ethnic and Racial Studies: New York, Immigration 101. The Wilson Quarterly, Vol. 32.
Jefferys, Kelly and Monger, Randall (2007). U.S. Legal Permanent Residents: Web.
Kallick, D. David and Brill, Jo (2007). Immigrants Create Almost a Quarter of New York State Economic Output. Fiscal Policy Institute Publication. Web.
McGeehan, Patrick (2007). Immigrants Pull Weight in Economy, Study Finds. The New York Times.
NCSL (National Conference of State Legislatures) (2007). Overview of State Legislation Related to Immigration and Immigrants.
Skerry, Peter (2006). Mother of Invention: The Statue of Liberty Stood for Decades in New York Harbor before It Became a Symbol of Welcome to Newcomers. in Forgetting That Fact, Americans Reveal Their Taste for Myths about Immigration. The Wilson Quarterly. Vol. 30.