Minorities and Immigrants–Struggle in the Job Markets

The commonly told tale about postindustrial New York is that of two cities, of white elites and minority poor, of advanced services and a crumbling manufacturing base. The conventional explanation for the ills of the minority poor is equally simple: they lack the skills that today’s employers want.

But there is a problem with this story: over a million nonwhite newcomers, often low in skills, rarely speaking English, lacking credentials, are doing reasonably well, particularly in...