How People Came to New York: From Lenape to Global Immigrants

Layers of Arrival

1. Indigenous Inhabitants

Lenape (Delaware) occupied Manhattan, Long Island, lower Hudson Valley for millennia before European contact.

2. European Colonists (17th Century)

• Dutch (1624): New Netherland, capital New Amsterdam.
• English (1664): Seized colony, renamed New York.
• Early settlers: traders, artisans, farmers, enslaved Africans (first arrivals 1626).

3. 19th‑Century Mass Immigration

• Irish (1840s‑50s): Famine refugees; settled Five Points, waterfront.
• Germans (1840s‑80s): Kleindeutschland (East Village); brewing, skilled trades.
• Italians (1880s‑1920s): Little Italy, East Harlem; construction, garment work.
• Eastern European Jews (1880s‑1920s): Lower East Side; fleeing pogroms.

4. 20th‑Century Waves

• Puerto Ricans (post‑1917 citizenship): Great Migration 1940s‑60s.
• African Americans (Great Migration): Harlem, Bedford‑Stuyvesant.
• Caribbean (Dominicans, Jamaicans, Haitians): 1960s‑present.
• Asians (Chinese, Korean, Indian, Filipino, Bangladeshi): Post‑1965 Immigration Act; Chinatown, Flushing, Jackson Heights.
• Latin Americans (Mexicans, Ecuadorians, Colombians): 1990s‑present.

5. Why They Come

• Jobs (finance, tech, healthcare, services, creative).
• Education (Columbia, NYU, CUNY, specialized high schools).
• Culture (museums, theatre, music, food).
• Diversity & networks (established communities ease integration).

New York remains a dynamic mosaic, continuously reshaped by new arrivals.