DOMINICANS BEING PART A BIG PART OF NEW YORK CITY AND AFFECTING TEH CENSUS
BY STUDENT
What impact the 2000 census had on Latinos/a/x specifically Dominican’s in New York City? My mom immigrated to the United States specifically to New York City in the early 1990s, she used to tell me how she came to the United States for a better life for her family and a better life from the country she has left. Hispanic at the moment make up about 16% of the population in the U.S. At the moment there was a large number of Dominicans who arrived in New York City about 52% at the time and she was part of that number, and as the years go by the numbers keep increasing. In the 2000 census, there was a change as Latinos surpassed Blacks and became second largest ethnic/race groups in New York City. Latinos were the largest in the Bronx which is where I live now, in 2000 Dominicans made up about 14.5% of the Bronx population.
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| https://macaulay.cuny.edu/seminars/gardner10-dominican/articles/p/o/p/Population_of_Dominicans_in_NYC_a0c9.html |
In the census, if 2000 Latinos were 27.8% of the population and in 2010 29.1% and over the following decade there’s a big chance of Latinos becoming the largest ethnic/race group in the city. Even though this change, most New Yorkers remain oblivious to this demographic watershed. Puerto Rican’s and Dominican’s make up most of the Latino population in New York City. In 2017, Dominicans living abroad sent nearly $6 billion in remittances to the Dominican Republic via formal channels, according to World Bank data. Remittances almost doubled in the past decade and represented about 8 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2016. A reason why many Dominicans came to the United States was to work and earn money for those they left back and for the family they will make. This was the reason why my mom came to the U.S. The reason for this rise in population is due to birth and fertility rates as 74% of all Latinos in the City were citizens because of birth. This high Latino population brings change as most of them to speak Spanish and different cultures of those living in the U.S. according to the Institute for Puerto Rican policy in 1996 Dominicans made a majority in the upper manhattan (Washington Heights and Morningside Heights). As Dominicans have their predominant neighborhood it makes it easier for them to communicate in Spanish and feel at home by implementing themselves into society. As dictator, Rafael Leónidas Trujillo died his anti-migration act was broken and many Dominicans came to the U.S and to this day when we think of a Dominican neighborhood, we think of Washington Heights since many live there and settled in Manhattan when they arrived. New York City is the second City of the Dominican Republic due to the great number of people living there.
By the Census 2020, Dominicans will become the new largest Latino community in New York City. By 2025, there will be 16 million more Latinos (59 million) than African- Americans (43 million). From then until the mid-century, according to the Bureau of the census. As the Latino/a/x population keeps growing it will lead to a great impact politically and socially. By 2050 Spanish will be the most spoken language in the U.S and second in the world not only that but it is expected for Latinos to have a lot of political power as they did in early 2000 with the Democratic vote excluding Cuban who were predominantly Republican. Soon, Latinos will have more of a voice and representation in politics as the number of Latinos keeps growing.
References
Davis, Mike. Magical Urbanism Latinos Reinvent the U.S. City. Verso, 2001. Print.
Bergad, Laird W. The Latino Population of New York City, 1990—2010. Nov. 2011, opencuny.org/nlerap4ne/files/2011/11/The-Latino-Population-of-New-York-City-1990-2010.pdf.
Zong, Jie, et al. “Dominican Immigrants in the United States.” Migrationpolicy.org, 3 May 2019, www.migrationpolicy.org/article/dominican-immigrants-united-states.
As we learned from our class discussion about Mike Davis’s first chapter of his book Magical Urbanism, claiming Latinx people have surpassed Black people in the census is problematic because it puts both minority groups against each other as if it’s a competition of who is the minority group that struggles the most, when in reality both communities face similar struggles and hardships. And it’s important to note that a lot of data regarding the Latinx community will always be muddled and intertwined with the black community since many Latinx people also identify as black. I really liked how you used the future census estimates to predict the Latinization of the US in the future by stating there will hopefully be more political representation for Latinx people as well as more exposure of the Spanish language. Do you foresee any negatives from the Latinx community becoming the largest minority group in the country?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Alana, I think that the fact that Latinx people have surpassed the Black population and will continue to do so can be problematic. Not only of the competition of who has bigger struggles but also, we are seen as a bigger threat to white supremacist. There has been attacks primarily targeting Latinx for instance the shooting at the Walmart in Texas. Although there are many benefits of becoming the majority race/ethnic group, it's terrifying knowing that there a people who consider us a threat and are willing to kill our people because of it. I do hope though that we can make some changes in our politics.
ReplyDeleteit’s crazy to see how much the Latino population has increased over the years. It’s also interesting that their biggest population is in NYC and Los Angeles. However a lot of gentrification tends to happen in these areas. As discussed in class gentrification has the tendency to displace minorities and low income people. My question is where do you believe will be the next biggest city that immigrants migrate to? Also do you believe there will ever be a point where immigrants stop migrating to Los Angeles and New York?
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