Click here to download the entire The Economic Impact of the Hispanic Population on Long Island as a printable PDF
Day laborers congregating on the side of a street may attract disproportionate attention, but they are less than a half of one percent of immigrants in the five downstate counties outside of New York City--Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, and Putnam. They are even a relatively small portion of the population of undocumented workers.
That's what a new report from the Fiscal Policy Institute concludes. The report, Working for a Better Life, looks at the role of immigrants in the New York State economy, and estimates that immigrants are responsible for nearly a quarter of the state's Gross Domestic Product.
Looking just at Long Island and the northern New York City suburbs, here are a few other findings that Long Island residents may find surprising.
Immigrants are diverse. Well under half of immigrants to Long Island and the New York City suburbs are Hispanic (37 percent). Almost as many are white (30 percent). The balance are Asian (18 percent) and black (13 percent).
Financially, immigrants are doing pretty well. The median income for an immigrant family in the region is $71,000. That's not as high as for U.S.-born residents, who have a median family income of $86,000. But, then again, it fits in pretty well to a region with a high standard of living.
Most immigrants speak English, and they improve over time. Nearly a quarter of immigrants speak only English at home, and an additional 37 percent speak English very well. Only five percent speak not at all, and another 15 percent speak not well. For immigrants who have been here ten years or more, nearly 90 percent speak at least well, and 66 percent speak at least very well.
Immigrants own homes. More than two thirds of immigrants are homeowners. That's not quite as high as the 83 percent of U.S.-born residents who own their own homes, but it's a substantial portion.
Where do immigrants work?
The most common occupation for immigrants is registered nurses—there are 15,000 foreign-born registered nurses in Long Island and the northern suburbs, making up about one in three RNs. A similar number of immigrants are maids (14,700), grounds maintenance workers (14,400) and janitors (14,200). But there are nearly 12,000 doctors, making up 41 percent of all doctors in the region. Immigrants are accountants, mangers, school teachers, and financial managers in very significant numbers as well.
Commuters are immigrants, too.
Nearly a third of commuters to New York City are foreign-born. Not all of them come from the five New York suburbs—some also come from Connecticut and New Jersey. And, like other commuters, immigrants who commute to New York City tend to cluster in high-wage occupations. Of the roughly 250,000 foreign-born commuters to New York, about 125,000 work in management, business, finance, or professional and related occupations.
What about undocumented immigrants?
Undocumented immigrants represent about 16 percent of immigrants in New York State. The report estimates that there are 130,000 undocumented immigrants living in Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester combined. They make up about two percent of the overall labor force, and a little under ten percent of people working in construction. Undocumented immigrants are predominantly Hispanic, but about ten percent come from South and East Asia, about five percent from Europe, and about three percent from the Middle East (including Turkey, Cyprus, and North Africa).
Where to get the full report:
To get a copy of the full report, go here.
Other news coverage:
Newsday editorial
Westchester Journal News article
FPI In the News