By now, you may have heard the buzz about Queens. You may have marveled at the gleaming new high rises and the pricey penthouses, at the influx of young professionals and the blossoming post-recession economy.
But talk to Amy Chan, a 42-year-old waitress, and she’ll tell you the flip side of that story.
In her neighborhood in Elmhurst, many Asian families live in crowded apartments and homes, and struggle to get by. Last summer, Ms. Chan lost her job at the Chinese restaurant where she had worked for five years.
It took her six months to find another one.
On the surface, this might seem confounding. Wasn’t it just a few months ago that Amy Chua of Tiger Mother fame was trumpeting
her new book highlighting the impressive success of Asian-Americans? Haven’t recent reports pointed to more jobs, more construction and more opportunity in Queens?
Yes and yes. But if you dig below the surface, you’ll find that Ms. Chan’s story is yet another example of the complexities and challenges that have emerged during this unsettled economic recovery period.
From 2008 to 2012, the poverty rate in Queens rose by 6 percentage points, the highest increase of any borough, according to a
city study released last week. Much of that jump was related to the struggles of Asian New Yorkers who fell deeper into poverty even after New York’s recession officially came to a close at the end of 2009.
Half of the city’s Asians live in Queens. And from 2008 to 2012, the percentage of Asians classified as poor increased to 29 percent from 22 percent, the sharpest rise of any ethnic group in the city.
“When you get off the 7 train, it’s bright and shiny and all this development is happening,” said Douglas Nam Le, the policy director at
Asian Americans for Equality, an advocacy and community development agency. “But while there are middle-income folks, there’s also this very concentrated poverty.”
So while it is true that Queens has boasted stronger job growth than any other borough over the past two years, it is also true that salaries in the private sector declined there during the same period, according to a
recent report by the state comptroller’s office.
The cause? The Great Recession wiped out higher-paying jobs in the borough’s information and manufacturing sectors, the comptroller’s report said. Those jobs have been replaced by work in lower-paying sectors such as retail, health care, food service and other industries.
So the wealthy and professionals with good jobs are thriving in Queens. But low-wage workers? Not so much.
And that Asian-American model minority stereotype? Well, nationally, the median income of Asian households is still higher than that of any other ethnic group, census statistics show. In New York City, the median income of Asian households was $52,095 in 2012, the second highest of any ethnic group after white, non-Hispanic households.
But the community is far from monolithic.
Immigrants from some countries have historically fared better economically than others, which is often related to how much education they have when they arrive. Many newcomers work in the service industry where wages remain low. Elderly Asians who lack citizenship sometimes struggle because they are ineligible for some safety net benefits.
None of this is a surprise to Howard Shih, the census programs director of the
Asian American Federation, an umbrella group of social service agencies. He says that a fixation on Asian-American prosperity has made it harder to focus attention on the poor.
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“There are a lot of indicators that seem to show that Asian-Americans are doing just fine,” Mr. Shih said.
“That doesn’t mean there’s no need in our communities,” he said. “That’s the challenge we face in telling our story.”
Officials in the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio, who have vowed to improve the lives of working families, said they planned to dig deeper into the statistics to try to develop a targeted approach.
Mindy Tarlow, director of the mayor’s Office of Operations, and Nisha Agarwal, the commissioner for immigrant affairs, said that efforts already underway will also help, including improving translation services to ensure better access to city services and benefits, and working to raise the minimum wage.
Meanwhile, Ms. Chan, who has a son in high school, considers herself lucky. She and her husband, who works as a chef, had savings to turn to when she was out of work.
Even so, the anxiety and stress of joblessness weighed on her.
“It’s really difficult for immigrants,” explained Ms. Chan, who knows that many people born in the United States are also struggling.
“You can only imagine then,” she said, “that it is even more difficult for us.”
