The Tremendous Impact of Immigration on NYC’s Economy

Immigrants play a vital role in supporting the tri-state region’s science and engineering industries and contributing to the broader economy.

Published March 1, 2000

By Frank B. Hicks, Ph.D. and Susan U. Raymond, Ph.D.
Academy Contributors

The Tri-State region has always been a magnet for immigrants. And nothing diversifies like diversity. The region’s bountiful collage of cultures and accessibility to global transportation continues to attract the largest portion of the nation’s immigrants. From 1994 to 1996, the region accounted for 24.7% of all legal, permanent immigrants, surpassing even California’s 23.6%.

That total influx to the region included 10,000 scientists and engineers (S&E), providing an important source of skilled personnel for both academic and industrial institutions. The vast majority of these S&E immigrants, 89%, settled in the 25-county area surrounding New York City.

The three counties with the most S&E immigrants were New York City’s Queens, Kings, and New York counties. However, the concentration of S&E immigrants within the overall immigration pattern is higher outside of New York City. While only 42% of all new immigrants to the Tri-State region settled outside New York City between 1994 and 1996, 64% of the S&E immigrants did. Communities in northern and central New Jersey, in fact, attracted only 22% of the region’s total immigration, but reeled in a whopping 38% of scientists and engineers.

Outside NYC Metro: Immigration and Concentration

Outside the 25-county area surrounding New York City there are still strong pockets of S&E immigrants, but the concentration is striking. Five counties account for 62% of the scientists and engineer flow outside the NYC Metro area. The five dominant counties are home either to academic and corporate S&E powerhouses (like Rochester with its academic, medical, and technology complex) or to industrial headquarters requiring significant technology and information systems input (like Hartford).

Immigrant Workforce Bolsters Region’s Skill Base

During the past twenty years, foreign-born workers have come to represent a steadily increasing share of the workforce of the Tri-State region. Immigration to the U.S. in the 1990s rivaled the peak period of the early twentieth century, and the Tri-State region is no exception. Between 1990 and 1998, the region’s foreign-born population grew from 14% to 18% of the total population.

Where They Come From

Spanish-speaking countries accounted for about a third of the Tri-State region’s immigrants. In contrast, in the Los Angeles area (the other major magnet for immigrants to the U.S.), Spanish-speaking countries together account for more than half of all new immigrants. In New York City, immigration from the former Soviet republics had by 1995 begun to surpass immigration from the Dominican Republic, the previous leader.

The Tri-State region’s immigrants arrive with occupations as diverse as their origins. Immigration is not only a significant source of highly trained scientists and engineers, but immigration is also a substantial contributor to the blue-collar and service and support workforces.

The 10,000 scientists and engineers, who made up about 5% of the region’s working legal immigrants from 1994-96, were joined by 2,400 college and university professors and instructors, 6,800 workers in various technical occupations, and 13,400 health care workers, including physicians.

The Importance of H1 Visas

Permanent residents are not the only new arrivals to the Tri-State region who contribute to the technology workforce. There are people admitted for a variety of temporary reasons as well. Among those admitted on a temporary basis are people who hold H1 visas. These are for workers whose entry into the U.S. is authorized because they possess specific skills, the demand for which cannot readily be met from domestic sources. A popular recent example has been computer programmers. Applicants for these visas must be sponsored by employers committed to hiring them, and the visas typically last from three to six years.

Between 1994 and 1996, 12,500 new entrants with H1 visas settled in the New York City metropolitan area. They represented only 2.1% of the area’s new arrivals—a reflection of national immigration policy that heavily emphasizes family, individual and political reasons for immigration, and traditionally has given less emphasis to employers’ workforce needs. Nearly 38% of the 1996 H1 workers held jobs in New York City, but just like the scientist and engineer immigrants, a larger fraction, 48%, were located in northern and central New Jersey.

Also read: Good News and Bad News in Closing the Gaps

Sources

• Source: Data on the cover and Page 2 are from an analysis and report based on Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) Public Use Microdata Series, FY1994-96, prepared for Tri-State Trends by Hugh O’Neill and Anthony Townsend of Appleseed, a consultancy. Occupation and residence data are based on information reported to the INS at the time of entry into the U.S., and so may not reflect the occupation or place of residence now.
• Analysis and report based on INS Public Use Microdata Series, FY1994-96, prepared for Tri-State Trends by Hugh O’Neill and Anthony Townsend of Appleseed, a consultancy.