Nouvelles de New York

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News of New York

New York’s debt to immigrants has become almost a cliché. Since Ellis Island was established as a center for new arrivals in 1892, millions of people have sought the shelter of Lady Liberty, fleeing poverty, famine, war and persecution overseas. They literally and figuratively built New York, from the skyscrapers and dockyards* to the corner delis* and garment* factories. They brought their native foods and religions, customs and clothing, which New York graciously absorbed. But those immigrants built the city inward and upward, and few ever ventured off the cramped, self-contained island of Manhattan.

The new immigrants are different. They are heading not for Manhattan, but for the more remote outer boroughs* – chiefly Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx – where housing is cheaper, job opportunities abound and there are plenty of derelict* neighborhoods ripe for revitalization. They couldn’t have done it without immigrants.

Visiting the outer boroughs today is like taking a trip round the world. In Queens, Hindus worship at a temple with carved elephant heads. West Indians play cricket in the shadow of the globe left over from the 1964 World’s Fair. In the Bronx, Mexicans barbecue pork over open barrels in Pelham Park. Albanians gather in corner groceries to share job tips*. And in Brooklyn, Rastafarians hold raucous drumming sessions* in Prospect Park…

… JFK airport in Queens has become the new Ellis Island, welcoming arrivals from all over the globe and whisking them off to neighborhoods ready to help them adapt. Pakistanis in the Bellerose neighborhood of Queens, for one, advertise job opportunities in local papers back home. So it’s easy to understand why a newly arrived family from Karachi would head straight for* Bellerose, where a mosque and a halal butcher are already established. But what makes the first person of any given background venture into unknown territory? Some unnamable blend of courage, opportunity and desperation, without which New York would never have become what Walt Whitman* called the “proud and passionate … mad, extravagant city!” that it’s renowned* as today.

Susan H. GREENBERG, in Newsweek*, August 6, 2001

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