The Economic Impact and Challenges Faced by Immigrants in New York City - Prof. Moser, Assignments of English Language

Download The Economic Impact and Challenges Faced by Immigrants in New York City - Prof. Moser and more Assignments English Language in PDF only on Docsity! Idris Oseni FIQWS-10108 October 11, 2022, Professor Moser How Do Immigrants Impact New York's Economy Growth And Development Ever since I was a little kid, I have always wished to experience the American dream and all the opportunities that come with it. In December 2019, Santa gave me an early Christmas present and it was a trip to New York. After living in New York for a little while I realized that almost everywhere I go, I see immigrants just like me and that got me wondering “How do immigrants contribute to New York’s economy? In this essay, I will discuss the role immigrants play in the development of the USA and more specifically New York as a whole. Did you know that immigrants make up 37% of New Yorkers and 44% of the labor force? (Thomas P. DiNapoli). Immigrants come to the United States to seek a better life and to contribute to its development but yet they are not well appreciated. People need to know this information because New York City, like the nation, has been built by immigrants. People worldwide have come to New York City seeking the freedoms and opportunities woven into the American dream. While their faces have changed over the past two centuries, New York City’s immigrants play an important role in the City’s economy. Here are some fun facts about immigrants in the last century; ● New York City has the largest immigrant population in the nation (3.1 million), twice as large as the second-ranked city. ● Since 1970, the number of immigrants (and their share of the City’s population) has more than doubled. ● Over the past few years, immigrants have accounted for 37 percent of the City’s population, the largest share in 100 years. ● Nearly three-quarters of the 4.4 million immigrants in New York State live in New York City, and another 18 percent live in the surrounding suburbs. ● New York City has the greatest diversity among the 10 cities in the United States with the largest number of immigrants. ● Immigrants from Latin America made up one-third of the City’s immigrant population in 2013, while more than one-fourth of immigrants came from Asia and nearly one-fifth came from the Caribbean. One-fourth of the City’s immigrants arrived in the past decade. ● More than 1.9 million immigrants (including 297,000 commuters) work in New York City. Immigrants accounted for 43 percent of the workforce in 2013, up from 31 percent in 1990. ● The ten Census-defined neighborhoods with the highest concentrations of immigrants accounted for nearly one-third of the City’s business growth between 2000 and 2013. ● Immigrants accounted for $257 billion in economic activity in 2013, nearly one-third of the City’s total gross product. ● The total amount of wages paid to immigrants reached $111.5 billion in 2013, one-third of the real wages paid to all workers in the City. I interviewed an immigrant from my mosque, his name is Mohammed Musa. Most people call him MM. He is a very kind and hard-working man who has been in New York for almost Ten years now and he has managed to save enough money to bring his wife and children to New York from Mali, and he did this while being undocumented. During the interview, I asked him who he was in Mali before he came to New York and he told me he was a software engineer, he had a house, car, and a good job but still wanted to come to New York for the American dream. I also asked him how his experience had been for all his years in New York, and he said “Alhamdulillah” which means Praise be to Allah; thank Allah. He talked about his poor housing experience, and how he shared a two-bedroom and one-bathroom apartment with seven other immigrants. He also talked about being unemployed for nine months and couldn't send money to his family in Mali since he was the breadwinner. Lastly, I asked him if he pays taxes and he said yes, In New York State immigrants contribute more than $19.3 billion in taxes. Toward the end of the interview, Mr. Mohammed asked me “ Why pay taxes in a country that doesn't recognize you as its citizen, after ten years?” Works Cited Thomas P. DiNapoli Kenneth B. Bleiwas “The Role of Immigrants in the New York City Economy”, November 2015. https://www.osc.state.ny.us/files/reports/osdc/pdf/report-7-2016.pdf Passel, Jeffrey S., and Rebecca L. Clark. “Immigrants in New York: Their Legal Status, Incomes, and Taxes.” Urban Institute Nonprofit Social and Economic Policy Research, The Urban Institute, 1 Apr. 1998. https://webarchive.urban.org/publications/407432.html#:~:text=In%20New%20York%20St ate%2C%20foreign,Security%20tax%2C%20and%20 unemployment%20insurance. NYS “The 8 Biggest Challenges Facing Immigrants.” https://nysiaf.org/the-8-biggest-challenges-facing-immigrants/. Emma Court and Ella Ceron. “NYC's 20,000 Migrants Are Fueling the City's Underground Economy.” Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, 26 Oct. 2022. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-10-26/nyc-s-20-000-migrants-are-fueling- the-city-s-underground-economy#xj4y7vzkg. Interview With Mr. Mohammed Musa, 20 November 2022.