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We are talking about Italian-Americans not immigrants from Italy.
Immigrants long favored arriving to major urban areas where they would find others from their country/region and (hopefully) employment. However successive generations can and often do move once they have established themselves. Again this is why the various Little Italy areas scattered around NYC are shrinking if not vanishing all together.
Italian-Americans are not somehow immune to the high taxes and COL of New York City and New Jersey, thus you see migration. They also are quite aware how once strong hold areas have changed into places they don't like including getting too dark for their tastes. So they pack up and move.
Back in my day Italian-Americans on Staten Island not liking what was going on moved to New Jersey. Well NJ with its high taxes and other problems isn't what it once was either, so now people are looking further south.
Don't know why am bothering arguing with you anyway. YOU are pulling random data off the Internet and probably do not even live in NYC. I OTOH was born and raised on Staten Island when it was mostly Italian. Every major holiday when I drive home more and more the license plates seen on the Outerbridge or Goethals bridge are from NJ, NC, and FLA. The vehicles parked in driveways are becoming ditto. When I read the obituary listings in the local newspaper you see more and more "formally of ......." but died elsewhere.
LOL. Give it up. Again, there is nothing you have posted or can post that will change these numbers:
Italian Ancestry, Metro Area New York: 3,246,878
Boston: 1,105,474
Chicago: 688,706
Philadelphia: 983,916
Los Angeles: 589,501
Washington: 483,667
San Francisco: 443,958
Miami: 357,488
Detroit: 308,661
Hartford: 244,641
Dallas: 157,447
Atlanta: 144,902
Houston: 141,108
Charlotte isn't even in the top 20, but I'll still give it to you:
Charlotte: 83,513
And since when was the Census a "random source"? Ha ha ha.
In fact, 46% of all people who speak Italian in the United States live in the New York area.
Looking through your source proves nothing other than the fact that Italian immigration to New York City (or the United States) in general is low compared to what it used to be. Of course it is, but that doesn't change the fact that the number of Italians living in greater New York have not decreased. Italians used to make up a greater percentage of New York because New York wasn't anywhere near as large and ethnically diverse then as it is now. New York City had a rather nonexistent Hispanic population in the 1950, for instance. When you throw in the millions of people who have moved to New York since the 1970s, logically, Italians share of the population has dramatically decreased even though the total numbers of Italians have not decreased. Simple mathematics.
PS - Most people will go through their life, even in NYC metro, never leaving the area. 70% of people born in New York State will die in New York State. Movers are minority of the population, anywhere.
Dyker Heights where I was born, and the house parts of Bay Ridge by Colonial Road and Shore Road have LOTS of Italians, as does everywhere in Staten Island that is white. Howard Beach in Queens is like a slice of my neighborhood in the middle of the city. In Yonkers right on the Woodlawn line it goes from Irish immigrants to Irish and Italian Americans (these two groups mix a lot..I know so many Irish/Italians) in Jersey I don't know all the areas but my uncle moved to Cranford and its like Dyker Heights with bigger lawns and newer homes, very Italian, and with some parts of South Shore Long Island like Massapequa.
I find WestChester outside of Yonkers is more Irish.
We're still here, and my generation (3rd and 4th from the old country) is still very conscious of our heritage.
I know it's hard as the generations pass but Italian language retention in the US seems very poor, I'm from Melbourne Australia and a high percentage of those that have Italian ancestry also speak the language...some of those figures are very alarming though.
I'm 100 percent Sicilian and me and my girlfriend who is also 100 percent Sicilian we would like to move to NYC. We prefer living in an Italian neighborhood because we would like to be around our fellow people and would be a family oriented neighborhood. I've been doing research but I can't find any recent data except from the 2000 census on Italian neighborhoods in NYC. So we could really use some help on fink ding some nice Italian neighborhoods in NYC
The are lots of Italian Americans all over NYC and many Italian American neighborhoods but very few cohesive old school Italian neighborhoods where a lot of people actually speak Italian enough to carry on a conversation.In The Bronx,Morris Park is your best bet with Belmont 2nd.
I have been to all of the Italian American enclaves scattered around the city and found most of them to be not very Italian at all. You can pretty much tell right away when you start going into shops and restaurants and figure out whether people speak Italian or English to each other.You definitely know if you start speaking Italian and nobody can understand you.
Also,if you want to find real Italian neighborhoods in NY, search for parishes where they actually have masses and confession in Italian,usually churches that have been designated as Italian National Parishes.They usually also have schools attached where they teach in Italian and teach Italian to grade school kids.. That will be a big clue.
Looking through your source proves nothing other than the fact that Italian immigration to New York City (or the United States) in general is low compared to what it used to be. Of course it is, but that doesn't change the fact that the number of Italians living in greater New York have not decreased. Italians used to make up a greater percentage of New York because New York wasn't anywhere near as large and ethnically diverse then as it is now. New York City had a rather nonexistent Hispanic population in the 1950, for instance. When you throw in the millions of people who have moved to New York since the 1970s, logically, Italians share of the population has dramatically decreased even though the total numbers of Italians have not decreased. Simple mathematics.
PS - Most people will go through their life, even in NYC metro, never leaving the area. 70% of people born in New York State will die in New York State. Movers are minority of the population, anywhere.
I don't believe most of these numbers. I speak Italian fluently and have a very hard time finding Italian Americans who can carry on any kind of conversation in Italian. I think there are a lot of people who claim to speak Italian or to be Italian speakers because they know a few words or phrases but sadly they don't actually speak Italian.
I often wonder whether even such celebrated Italian Americans as the mob wives…big Ang Raiola,Renee Graziano,Karen Gravano,Carla Facciolo,etc could have a conversation with each other in Italian ?
Probably not in proper Italian, but in the Italian equivalent of Spanglish with a lot of profanity probably. Jersey and Staten Island (OG not Bensonhurst refugees like my family) are more italian when it comes to language than BK/LI Italians. You notice the difference in places out around Paterson and Newark (suburbs of these places- these cities are mostly black/Spanish and scary) and also in the white north shore areas like Rosebank on SI where there are a lot of FOBs my parents age. I think the guy from Real Housewifes of Jersey wasn't even a citizen and the Feds tried to deport him after they got the tax evasion rap
Italian-American neighborhoods really are a thing of the past. Sure, you'll find people of 'Italian-Ancestry' but you're hardly come across neighborhoods vibrant with any 'traditional'Italian culture. I'd say for at least the next 50+ years, you'll be safe if you move somewhere along the southshore of Staten Island. After that, I don't know what's going to happen. But like others have mentioned here, moving to NYC just to 'be with your own' is a pretty bad idea considering it's one of the most expensive places to live. It's much better to live somewhere where you're financially secure than to move somewhere wearing your nostalgia goggles; for I guarantee that you'll be really disappointed.
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