Big Apple History . Coming to America . New Immigration


	President George W. Bush welcomes newly naturalized U.S. citizens.

In 1965, the Hart-Cellar Act, an immigration law that favored opening up United States' borders to immigrants with skills, was passed. It was the most radical change to federal immigration policy since 1924, when immigration was made more difficult. In the 1970s, 800,000 immigrants came to New York City. In the 1980s, one million more came. And in 1992 alone, 120,000 newcomers called New York home. By the late '90s more than one third of all New Yorkers were born outside the United States. The immigrants were from all corners of the globe. In 1644, 18 different languages were spoken in the city. The figure has now increased to nearly 180 languages. By the late '90s nearly one third of black New Yorkers were recent immigrants from the Caribbean. The Latino population expanded from its Puerto Rican base to include a comparable number of Cubans, Dominicans, and Central and South Americans. Soviet Jews and Asians also came to the city in large numbers and settled there.

According to historian Kenneth T. Jackson, "Americans need New York because New York is one of the few places in the country that allows difference to be celebrated, that allows people to reach their full potential. That in a sense is what drives civilization, what drives freedom, what moves us forward and what is really the hope of the future. New York represents the hope of the future because it's there for all of us. Whether we never go there, whether we never see New York, whatever small town or small city we're from, it's important that we know that New York is there to welcome us in case we want to be different. That somewhere in the country there is a place where we can go, no matter what we believe, no matter who we are, no matter what we want to do, and we can find in that place other people like ourselves and a possibility of reaching our full potential."