Joseph Berger spoke at Hamilton on Thursday Dec. 1 on the topic "The World in a Single City: How Immigration is Changing the Neighborhoods of the New New York." Berger, an education columnist for The New York Times, recently published a memoir about his own experience growing up as an immigrant in 1950s and 60s Manhattan, Displaced Persons: Growing Up American After the Holocaust.
Berger and his family moved to New York City from a displaced persons camp in Poland when he was 5-years old. While the city had a reputation for being a cosmopolitan melting pot in those times, he said, it was ethnically bland compared to the New York City of today. In the 1950s and 60s when Berger was a child, there were only a few distinct large immigrant populations, each living largely in their own areas of the city. Berger said that today, however, New York's reputation as a city of immigrants and a melting pot of ethnicities is "stunningly" true. The whole world is represented by the people of New York City, and Berger said that he feels he can report about many different places and different groups of people without ever leaving the five boroughs. In fact, 60% of the city's residents are either first or second-generation immigrants to the United States.
The ethnic makeup of New York's neighborhoods has drastically changed since Berger's childhood, he continued. The members of the largest immigrant ethnic groups of the early 20th century, such as Jews, Italians, Irish and Greeks, have largely moved out to the city's suburbs, making way for over 25 new significant ethnic groups to move in. These newly prominent ethnic groups represent a much wider geographic area of origin, including South America, East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the former Soviet Union. Some neighborhoods still exist that are primarily home to one ethnic group, but many neighborhoods throughout the city are incredibly heterogeneous.
Berger pointed out that this is not a phenomenon unique to New York City. Rather, he said, it is "coming to a theater near you" no matter where you live. American cities such as Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles have increasing and diverse immigrant populations. Foreign cities like Toronto, London, Paris and Rome are also following the same trend. Even smaller cities like Utica, here in Central New York, are centers for immigration, with 10,000 refugees coming to live in the city in recent years.
In his column for The New York Times, Berger said that he explores New York City as a collection of villages, each with its own unique character, by telling the stories of regular people from these different neighborhoods. Many of his stories focus on how immigrants are bringing new cultures and experiences into the city. As a result, he said, his stories often show the difficulty of life for immigrants, and how hard they work to overcome obstacles to success in their new home. Berger mentioned some of the people he has covered in his columns, including Ghanaians who buy houses back in their home country to show their success to their families, Filipino women who have found their occupational niche as nurses, and Russian women who sell their furniture to afford mink coats and ballet lessons for their children.
The stories of immigrants in New York City are not all pleasantly colorful however, Berger stressed. There is a dark underside to the immigrant experience, he said, such as conflicts between new and old residents of neighborhoods and the tensions between immigrants and their Americanized offspring. There is also a high level of divorce in immigrant families, often as a result of the time the families must spent apart while one member is alone in the U.S. making money to send home. There have been some advances in technology that have made this burden on family slightly less for today's immigrants, Berger said. Immigrants can often fly home to visit, and can communicate with their families by email, phone, and even videoconferencing. Seeing these developments, Berger said, he cannot but help of the experiences of his family, whose connection with Poland after emigrating was restricted to occasional airmail letters.
Despite the vibrancy of new immigrant cultures in New York City, Berger also expressed some regret that many historical immigrant communities are now only a memory. The Lower East Side, for example, is now home to the rich, hip grandchildren of the lower class immigrants who lived there decades ago. While change is "bewitching and bewildering," as he put it, Berger said that we remember to grasp what's left of great historical communities before they flicker out of existence. He concluded by encouraging the audience to observe and appreciate the immigrant experiences in their own communities.
Berger's lecture was sponsored by the Department of Comparative Literature and the Dean of Faculty.
-- by Caroline Russell O'Shea
