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Also FYI: The South is not the African American ancestral home. African American's have ancestry primarily based in West Africa (i.e. Nigeria, Senegal, Gambia, etc). Slaves were however taken from their true ancestral land in West Africa to work the cotton fields of the South.
I have ancestors who set up a mill several generations ago in Quebec. The mill is still there. I could conceivably call this my ancestral home, even though those ancestors immigrated from France to Quebec many many years ago.
As for where blacks are moving, it's a diverse group of destinations. Some are moving to the suburbs; the black population is growing in the parts of Long Island and Westchester just over the border from Queens and the Bronx, as well as on Staten Island (effectively a suburb and the only borough where the black population grew).
Actually, technically, the Bronx saw a slight growth in its black population from 2000-2010. (It was something like 0.1%).
I've met a far number of Puerto Ricans when I go to Los Angeles. Honestly, people go wherever they can find jobs. Other Hispanic and Black groups also leave the city, just like other groups of people, according to where they go to college or where they get jobs. I have a Black friend who lives in Alaska. Everyone goes everywhere these days, people are stereotyping a bit here.
I think CityGirl is right, the poorest Blacks or the poorest of any other group remain in NYC in the housing projects or on other government programs. In the rest of the country you generally have to drive everywhere, and it doesn't make much sense to leave NYC just to get a minimum wage job elsewhere. The people who move are either skilled working class or professional. And since a lot of middle class jobs have left NYC, so too have a lot of middle class and educated people. In many areas, they were replaced either by people on programs, and/or people who work in the low paid retail/service sector.
They are moving south in large numbers because that's where some of the lower mid-skilled jobs are. Toyota, Hyundai, Honda and Kia have all put up big assembly facilities there paying $19 to $20/hr. During the pre-WW2 years, Italian and eastern European immigrants moved to Ohio because that is where the industrial activity was located. Nothing complicated with that.
They are moving south in large numbers because that's where some of the lower mid-skilled jobs are. Toyota, Hyundai, Honda and Kia have all put up big assembly facilities there paying $19 to $20/hr. During the pre-WW2 years, Italian and eastern European immigrants moved to Ohio because that is where the industrial activity was located. Nothing complicated with that.
Except they have no problem hiring local people for those jobs, for starters. I know people who work in the auto industry in the South. You often have to have an associates or some kind of technical training to do those types of jobs. Its not that low skill, and the employers are actually pretty picky as to who they hire. The Southern states worked with the auto makers to alter curricula at their community colleges so they'd be able to increase the qualified pool of applicants.
I'm not saying no one from NYC is qualified to do those jobs, but in large numbers I seriously doubt that. In part because NYC hasn't had much of an industrial base in decades and certainly not heavy industry like automobile manufacture. Now the effects that these companies have on local job markets probably require them to need additional workers, so what you're saying holds at least some truth.
But the reason why I say some truth is that its really a lot more like earlier generations who came to NYC. Just as white Europeans who used to live in NYC scattered to all corners of the nations, so too are Blacks and Hispanics, and this goes beyond being African American or Puerto Rican.
Except they have no problem hiring local people for those jobs, for starters. I know people who work in the auto industry in the South. You often have to have an associates or some kind of technical training to do those types of jobs. Its not that low skill, and the employers are actually pretty picky as to who they hire. The Southern states worked with the auto makers to alter curricula at their community colleges so they'd be able to increase the qualified pool of applicants.
I'm not saying no one from NYC is qualified to do those jobs, but in large numbers I seriously doubt that. In part because NYC hasn't had much of an industrial base in decades and certainly not heavy industry like automobile manufacture. Now the effects that these companies have on local job markets probably require them to need additional workers, so what you're saying holds at least some truth.
But the reason why I say some truth is that its really a lot more like earlier generations who came to NYC. Just as white Europeans who used to live in NYC scattered to all corners of the nations, so too are Blacks and Hispanics, and this goes beyond being African American or Puerto Rican.
African Americans have been moving across America since slavery ended in 1865. Some places more promising like the west coast and some places more hostile like the North East region which has plenty of immigrants and its descendents, it forces African Americans to compete with immigrants and migrants.
African Americans have been moving across America since slavery ended in 1865. Some places more promising like the west coast and some places more hostile like the North East region which has plenty of immigrants and its descendents, it forces African Americans to compete with immigrants and migrants.
Are African Americans really in competition with immigrants? If you're someone who is in and out of jail and working in the warehouse, or the dishroom, perhaps.
But a big portion of NYC's civil servants are African Americans, and these jobs (union, you get pensions and all) are not open to the average low end immigrant). Pretty much anyone who gets them is a citizen, you are required to take civil service exams to get the jobs often, have to pass pretty tight background checks, etc.
I don't know why people try to declare most African Americans invisible and only pretend that housing project African Americans exist.
As for the descendants of immigrants go, we are all descendants of foreigners, African Americans included.
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