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Immigration Boom Adds Diversity to Big Apple

Aired July 30, 2000 - 7:20 p.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: A boom in immigration happened 90 years ago, before the city was known as the Big Apple, and it's happening again, as New York City opens wide its welcoming arms.

CNN's Deborah Feyerick explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Chinatown, Little Odessa, Spanish Harlem -- New York City with its many varied faces is growing even more diverse. New census figures for the last decade show 40 percent of people living here were born outside the United States.

ANDREW BEVERIDGE, SOCIOLOGIST, QUEENS COLLEGE: They're coming from Dominican Republic, from Pakistan and Bangladesh, from south Asia, from Mexico.

FEYERICK: Each neighborhood a mirror of home for immigrants like Russian-born Nari Chemov (ph).

NARI CHEMOV, RUSSIAN IMMIGRANT: It reminds me of Russia altogether.

FEYERICK: Sociologists say New York hasn't seen this kind of influx since 1910, when the majority of arriving immigrants landed at Ellis Island. Then, the majority of immigrants were European. Today, immigration to New York is undergoing a transformation.

BEVERIDGE: From a kind of traditional immigrant city, a city of -- with the sons and daughters of the old immigrants to a new city, a city that's really dominated by the new immigrant groups.

FEYERICK: For example, the Census reports the number of Mexicans quadruples from 35,000 in 1990 to 133,000 last year. Russians tripled during that time from 81,000 in 1990 to 229,000 in 1999. And South East Asians from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh doubled from 89,000 to 172,000; with the Dominican community growing to 387,000 people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The reason why a place like New York has such appeal to immigrants is because there are so many others who share their same ethnicity, who know their language, who know their customs, who know their food, who know their religion, and often, who even know them personally. FEYERICK: Many cities have seen an increase in immigrants, but no place has the diversity of New York. The borough of Queens boasts 167 nationalities and 116 different languages.

(on camera): Were it not for all the people arriving from different countries, New York City's population would actually be shrinking; a result, historians say, of folks moving to suburbs or dying.

(voice-over): And as long as the economy remains strong, sociologists predict the booming immigrant trend is likely to continue.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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