PROGRAM

A program celebrating the publication of Hunter sociology professor Nancy Foner’s collection, “One Out of Three: Immigrant New York in the Twenty-First Century,” on New York’s past, present and future as an immigrant city, with panelists Foner, her colleague/collaborator Hunter professor Phil Kasinitz, and moderated by New York Times journalist and NY1 host Sam Roberts.

Part of the Changing New York series of programs.

About the Book:

This absorbing anthology features in-depth portraits of diverse ethnic populations, revealing the surprising new realities of immigrant life in twenty-first-century New York City. Contributors show how nearly fifty years of massive inflows have transformed New York City’s economic and cultural life and how the city has changed the lives of immigrant newcomers.

Nancy Foner’s introduction describes New York’s role as a special gateway to America. Subsequent essays focus on the Chinese, Dominicans, Jamaicans, Koreans, Liberians, Mexicans, and Jews from the former Soviet Union now present in the city and fueling its population growth. They discuss both the large numbers of undocumented Mexicans living in legal limbo and the new, flourishing community organizations offering them opportunities for advancement. They recount the experiences of Liberians fleeing a war torn country and their creation of a vibrant neighborhood on Staten Island’s North Shore. Through engaging, empathetic portraits, contributors consider changing Korean-owned businesses and Chinese Americans’ increased representation in New York City politics, among other achievements and social and cultural challenges. A concluding chapter follows the prospects of the U.S.-born children of immigrants as they make their way in New York City.

SPEAKERS

Nancy Foner  Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York

Nancy Foner received her B.A. from Brandeis University and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Her main area of interest is immigration. She has studied Jamaicans in their home society as well as in New York and London, done research on nursing home workers, and written widely on immigration to New York City. She is particularly interested in the comparative study of immigration – comparing immigration today with earlier periods in the United States, the immigrant experience in various American gateway cities, and immigrant minorities in the United States and Europe.

Nancy Foner is the author or editor of sixteen books, including From Ellis Island to JFK: New York’s Two Great Waves of Immigration (Yale University Press, 2000, winner of the 2000 Theodore Saloutos Award of the Immigration and Ethnic History Society); In a New Land: A Comparative View of Immigration (New York University Press, 2005, Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2006); Not Just Black and White: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Immigration, Race, and Ethnicity in the United States (edited with George Fredrickson, Russell Sage Foundation, 2004, Honorable Mention, Thomas and Znaniecki Distinguished Book Award of the International Migration Section of the American Sociological Association); Across Generations: Immigrant Families in America (New York University Press, 2009); Islands in the City: West Indian Migration to New York (University of California Press, 2001); and Immigration Research for a New Century: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (edited with Ruben Rumbaut and Steven Gold, Russell Sage Foundation, 2000).

Most recently, she is editor of One Out of Three: Immigrant New York in the Twenty-First Century (Columbia University Press, 2013), a collection of original essays providing an in-depth and up-to-date look at immigrant New York after nearly half a century of massive inflows, and co-editor of New York and Amsterdam: Immigration and the New Urban Landscape (New York University Press, 2014), a comparison of immigration’s impact on these two global cities. Foner is also the author of more than 90 articles and book chapters.

Among her other activities, Foner has testified on immigration issues before several Congressional committees and serves on the editorial board of numerous journals, including International Migration Review, Global Networks, and the Journal of American Ethnic History. She is currently the president-elect of the Eastern Sociological Society. She has been chair of the International Migration Section of the American Sociological Association and president of the Society for the Anthropology of Work as well as the Society for Urban, National, and Transnational/Global Anthropology. In 2010, she received the Distinguished Career Award from the International Migration Section of the American Sociological Association, and in 2011 she was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.


Phil Kasinitz  Professor of Sociology at the Graduate Center and Hunter College of the City University of New York

Philip Kasinitz currently chairs the Ph.D. Program in Sociology at the Graduate Center and is a former President of the Eastern Sociological Society. Professor Kasinitz received his B.A. from Boston University on 1979 and his Ph.D. from the Sociology Department of New York University in 1987. Prior to coming to C.U.N.Y. in 1993 he taught at Williams College and he has taught as a visiting Professor at Princeton. His book Caribbean New York: Black Immigrants and the Politics of Race (Cornell University Press, 1992) won the Thomas and Znaniecki Award from the International Migration Section of the ASA. He is the editor of Metropolis: Center and Symbol of Our Time (New York University Press, 1995), co-editor (with Josh DeWind and Charles Hirschman) of Handbook on International Migration (Russell Sage Foundation, 1999), and (with Mollenkopf and Waters) Becoming New Yorkers: Ethnographies of The New Second Generation (Russell AgeFoundation 2004), which received an honorable mention for the 2005 Robert Park Award. His most recent book, Inheriting the City: The Children of Immigrants Come of Age (with Waters, Mollenkopf and Jennifer Holdaway) was published by the Harvard University Press in April 2008. In addition to numerous publications in academic journals, Professor Kasinitz has written for Dissent, The Nation, The City Journal, The Wall Street Journal, Common Quest, Lingua Franca, and Newsday, and he is currently the book review editor of the Journal Sociological Forum. He has been a member of the Social Science Research Council’s Committee on International Migration, the historical advisory board of the new museum of American Immigration on Ellis Island, and the Russell Sage Foundation’s committee to study the social effects of 9-11 on New York City.


Moderator: Sam Roberts   Urban Affairs Correspondent for The New York Times

Sam Roberts is the Urban Affairs Correspondent for The New York Times. He was formerly city editor for The New York Daily News. His reporting has won prizes, including awards from the Newspaper Guild of New York and the Peter Kihss Award for the City of New York. His books include Who We Are Now and The Brother, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His magazine articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, the New Republic, New York Magazine, and Empire State Report. He lives–where else?–in New York City.




“One Out of Three: Immigrant New York in the Twenty-First Century,” a Book Discussion with Sociologist Nancy Foner | Posted on August 7th, 2013 | Book Discussions, Changing New York, Faculty Public Programs, Public Programs