VTMBH Article: Body
The Indian population in Long Island has nearly doubled in the last decade, up to 34,333 in the 2000 census from 17,523 in the 1990 census.
With 14 percent of Long Islands immigrant population coming from the Asian and Latino communities, Hofstra University and the American Jewish Committee co-sponsored a symposium titled The Changing Face of Long Island: New Immigrant Communities from South Asia and Latin America, on April 9 at the universitys Long Island campus.
The new immigrants from Asia and Latin America have changed the face of Long Island, from one that was predominantly white and middle class to one that is more heterogeneous in terms of ethnicity, nationality and to some degree socio-economic status, said Margaret Abraham, associate professor of sociology and chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Hofstra, who helped open the symposium.
They include wealthy entrepreneurs, professionals and workers in a range of occupations, the Indian-born Abraham added. The trend in Long Island, despite the resistance of a few segments, is to a more ethnically diversified society.
While the minorities in Long Island continue to be segregated in terms of neighborhoods, clearly we are moving away from an all-white or racially dichotomized Long Island in terms of blacks and whites, to one that is characterized by more ethnically diverse communities.
An interesting trend with the new immigration is that rather than dealing with the overflow from New York City to the suburbs, Long Island is becoming the first and perhaps main stop for many of the new immigrants, Abraham said.
Contrary to the previous white flight from New York City to the suburbs that helped the development of Long Island, the current trend is for increasing movement by ethnic minorities into the suburbs.
Abraham cited a report in Newsday which predicted that Asians and Hispanics will comprise almost a third of the population of Long Island by 2020.
Approximately 50 guests were present at the program.
Following the panel discussion was a series of workshops focusing on specific areas of interest: education, legal matters, housing, business and employment.
Each workshop was staffed with professionals working in the topic areas and private individuals with first-hand knowledge of the problems and challenges these immigrant populations face. The workshops focused on strategies for progress with an eye to the future.
Abraham told Desi Talk that the numbers clearly pointed to a growing South Asian population in Long Island, noting, We [South Asians] have a diversity of cultures that increases the community of Long Island at large.
She said South Asians have contributed to the economy in a variety of ways: as professionals, as small business owners and as service providers.
As far as the problems facing the South Asian population in Long Island are concerned, she said that affordable housing and cultural issues were at the forefront.
Abraham added that it was important for schools to have greater cultural sensitivity to the different immigrant communities.
Kusum Viswanathan, a Long-Island based doctor who has three children, spoke about issues related to education, saying that not only was it important for immigrants children to be knowledgeable about their heritage and culture, but it was equally important for their peers to understand this at some level.
In order to achieve this goal, Viswanathan said that when her children were in nursery school she would go there to give presentations on India and Indian culture.
She would show them how a sari is worn, dress the little boys and girls in Indian clothes and bring them bindis. Many of the boys would walk out wearing bindis, she laughed. Viswanathan stressed the importance of parent-teacher associations (PTAs) and said that Indian parents were often not as actively involved as they should be.
She brought up an important point concerning Indian attitudes toward teachers, saying that parents always assumed that the know-all teacher was always right. Viswanathan stressed the point that such attitudes could actually be detrimental to children with genuine concerns that are not understood by their teachers.
If a teacher complains about a child, parents should not jump to hasty conclusions that he or she is always right, but should try to look at the situation from the childs perspective as well, said Viswanathan.
In India, we pray to God, our parents and the teacher, and we never question the teachers judgment, she added.
Muzaffar Chisti, director of the Migration Policy Institute at the New York University School of Law, was the luncheon speaker.
He opened his remarks by drawing a parallel between the Jewish and the Asian and Hispanic migration to Long Island.
A few years ago (40 or 50), we would be talking about Jewish immigrants to Long Island, he said. And now it is only appropriate that we should be talking about Hispanic and South Asian populations.
Chisti also discussed immigration issues on a national scale, saying that the political leadership had reacted admirably, after the terrorist attacks of September 11th with U.S. President George W. Bush speaking for inclusion and highlighting the diversity of the United States.
While Chisti agreed that civil liberties had been curtailed in the wake of September 11th, he stressed that immigration policies in general had not changed, as some had feared, after the deadly attacks.
He said that immigrants were still allowed in the country, unlike the moratorium some feared. The larger picture is not as bad as it could have been, he noted.
Full of praise for American diversity, which is steadily increasing, Chisti said that while Hindus and Muslims might kill each other in India or Pakistan, they generally lived together harmoniously in Queens.
And, while the conflict in the Middle East continues to rage, Jews, Arabs and Palestinians generally live peacefully together in downtown Brooklyn.
There is something about the chemistry of immigration that is uniquely American and uniquely transforming,
With 14 percent of Long Islands immigrant population coming from the Asian and Latino communities, Hofstra University and the American Jewish Committee co-sponsored a symposium titled The Changing Face of Long Island: New Immigrant Communities from South Asia and Latin America, on April 9 at the universitys Long Island campus.
The new immigrants from Asia and Latin America have changed the face of Long Island, from one that was predominantly white and middle class to one that is more heterogeneous in terms of ethnicity, nationality and to some degree socio-economic status, said Margaret Abraham, associate professor of sociology and chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Hofstra, who helped open the symposium.
They include wealthy entrepreneurs, professionals and workers in a range of occupations, the Indian-born Abraham added. The trend in Long Island, despite the resistance of a few segments, is to a more ethnically diversified society.
While the minorities in Long Island continue to be segregated in terms of neighborhoods, clearly we are moving away from an all-white or racially dichotomized Long Island in terms of blacks and whites, to one that is characterized by more ethnically diverse communities.
An interesting trend with the new immigration is that rather than dealing with the overflow from New York City to the suburbs, Long Island is becoming the first and perhaps main stop for many of the new immigrants, Abraham said.
Contrary to the previous white flight from New York City to the suburbs that helped the development of Long Island, the current trend is for increasing movement by ethnic minorities into the suburbs.
Abraham cited a report in Newsday which predicted that Asians and Hispanics will comprise almost a third of the population of Long Island by 2020.
Approximately 50 guests were present at the program.
Following the panel discussion was a series of workshops focusing on specific areas of interest: education, legal matters, housing, business and employment.
Each workshop was staffed with professionals working in the topic areas and private individuals with first-hand knowledge of the problems and challenges these immigrant populations face. The workshops focused on strategies for progress with an eye to the future.
Abraham told Desi Talk that the numbers clearly pointed to a growing South Asian population in Long Island, noting, We [South Asians] have a diversity of cultures that increases the community of Long Island at large.
She said South Asians have contributed to the economy in a variety of ways: as professionals, as small business owners and as service providers.
As far as the problems facing the South Asian population in Long Island are concerned, she said that affordable housing and cultural issues were at the forefront.
Abraham added that it was important for schools to have greater cultural sensitivity to the different immigrant communities.
Kusum Viswanathan, a Long-Island based doctor who has three children, spoke about issues related to education, saying that not only was it important for immigrants children to be knowledgeable about their heritage and culture, but it was equally important for their peers to understand this at some level.
In order to achieve this goal, Viswanathan said that when her children were in nursery school she would go there to give presentations on India and Indian culture.
She would show them how a sari is worn, dress the little boys and girls in Indian clothes and bring them bindis. Many of the boys would walk out wearing bindis, she laughed. Viswanathan stressed the importance of parent-teacher associations (PTAs) and said that Indian parents were often not as actively involved as they should be.
She brought up an important point concerning Indian attitudes toward teachers, saying that parents always assumed that the know-all teacher was always right. Viswanathan stressed the point that such attitudes could actually be detrimental to children with genuine concerns that are not understood by their teachers.
If a teacher complains about a child, parents should not jump to hasty conclusions that he or she is always right, but should try to look at the situation from the childs perspective as well, said Viswanathan.
In India, we pray to God, our parents and the teacher, and we never question the teachers judgment, she added.
Muzaffar Chisti, director of the Migration Policy Institute at the New York University School of Law, was the luncheon speaker.
He opened his remarks by drawing a parallel between the Jewish and the Asian and Hispanic migration to Long Island.
A few years ago (40 or 50), we would be talking about Jewish immigrants to Long Island, he said. And now it is only appropriate that we should be talking about Hispanic and South Asian populations.
Chisti also discussed immigration issues on a national scale, saying that the political leadership had reacted admirably, after the terrorist attacks of September 11th with U.S. President George W. Bush speaking for inclusion and highlighting the diversity of the United States.
While Chisti agreed that civil liberties had been curtailed in the wake of September 11th, he stressed that immigration policies in general had not changed, as some had feared, after the deadly attacks.
He said that immigrants were still allowed in the country, unlike the moratorium some feared. The larger picture is not as bad as it could have been, he noted.
Full of praise for American diversity, which is steadily increasing, Chisti said that while Hindus and Muslims might kill each other in India or Pakistan, they generally lived together harmoniously in Queens.
And, while the conflict in the Middle East continues to rage, Jews, Arabs and Palestinians generally live peacefully together in downtown Brooklyn.
There is something about the chemistry of immigration that is uniquely American and uniquely transforming,