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Unit 14 New Y
ork City and Its
Immigration Culture
In
the
span
of
just
a
few
centuries,
what
is
now
New
Y
ork
City
went
from
a
verdant
wilderness
on
the
edge
of
the
known
world
to
a
sprawling
megalopolis
that
commands
international
attention.
Still,
with
all
its
size
and
frenetic
energy
,
New
Y
orkers remain stubbornly
sentimental about the city they call home.
Painters, writers
and
filmmakers have
tried
to capture
its essence and
appeal. But
nothing compares to
actually
being
there,
walking
the
streets,
and
soaking
in
the
unique,
syncopated
rhythm of the city
.
Unlike cities such as Rome
or
Beijing, New
Y
ork cannot
look
back on
millennia
of
development
and
history
.
Even
so,
unprecedented
growth
and
prosperity
over
a
relatively
short
time
has
raised
New
Y
ork
to
the
level
of
the
greatest
cities
of
civilization. Concentrated into a
relatively small space,
“
The
City
”
, as people call it, is
a
world
of
commerce,
imagination,
diversity
,
and
productivity.
The
city
actually
consists of five boroughs: Manhattan,
Brookyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island.
Y
et,
when
people
speak
of
New
Y
ork
City
,
they
generally
are
talking
about
the
island of Manhattan.
This
is where
it started. This
is
where the
vitality of
the city
is
most evident. This is
where the buildings scrape the sky
.
Immigration
has
had
a
profound
impact on the
texture of American culture.
And
New
Y
ork
City
serviced
as
the
primary
entry
ponit
on
the
Atlantic
coast
for
immigrants to the United
States. In the
late 1800s and early
1900s,
millions of people
emigrated
from
Europe to
the United States
to escape economic, political,
and social
hardships.
In
1892,
the
US
government
opened
an
immigration
facility
on
Ellis
Island,
in
New
Y
ork
Harbor,
that
processed
more
than
12
million
people
over
a
period
of
62
years.
Two-thirds
of
the
immigrants
only
passed
through
New
Y
ork
on
their
way
to
other parts of the United
States, while others poured into New
Y
ork City
, most notable
the
Lower
East
Side
of
Manhattan.
Because
they
shared
a
common
language
and
culture,
immigrants
from
the
same
country
tended
to
settle
close
together,
creating
unique
neighborhoods that survive to this day
.
In
the
late
nineteenth
century
,
Chinese
immigrants
started
to
move
into
Lower
Manhattan.
Throughout
the
twentieth
century,
Chinatown
continued
to
expand,
maintaining its distinct Chinese
character as New Y
ork City grew up
around it. Today
,
a
walk
through
Chinatown
is
like
a
trip
to
the
other
side
of
the
world
with
Chinese
spoken
everywhere
and
signs
in
Chinese
characters.
The
restaurants
serve
unique
foods, and the shops sell items from
Beijing and Shanghai.
The first three decades of the
twentieth century brought massive waves of
Italians
to
the
United
States.
A
large
percentage
of
these
immigrants
settled
in
the
five
boroughs
of
New
Y
ork
City
.
As
the
years
went
on,
Italian
neighborhoods
started
to
disappear
but
one
remained
strong
—
Little
Italy,
just
north
of
Chinatown
and
centered
on
Mulberry
street,
is
a
neighborhood
of
restaurants,
shops
and
businesses
owned by
descendants of Italian
immigrants. The
neighborhood
is
much smaller now
than
it
used
to
be,
but
you
can
still
walk
down
Mulberry
Street
and
have
a
dish
of
flavorful pasta or a frothy cup of
cappuccino.
In
1954,
the
immigration
facility
on
Ellis
Island
closed.
But
the
main
building