New York’s Newest Citizens Hungry to Cast Their Votes

Matthew Heyes / 8 Feb / 9am / Population

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/nyregion/03immigrants.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

This article concerns the upcoming elections and the lack of mention of policies regarding immigration by candidates in the New York primaries. The immigrants concerned are from Mumbai, India; Port-au-Prince, Haiti; and Georgetown, Guyana and their opinions and insights seem to have been disregarded. In this immigrant city, about 37 percent of the population, or 3 million people, are foreign-born. A sampling of immigrant voters in recent days illustrated the excitement this hotly contested presidential race has generated among a number of ethnic groups and the varied, off-the-cuff views many have of the candidates

Opinions are gathered from immigrants from Argentina who of course have already had a female president, these immigrants may be more likely to vote for Hilary Clinton than the average immigrant from a country who have not had a female president. There are also many immigrants who came to America in the time of Bill Clinton and considered it a far more prosperous and peaceful environment than that in the current Bush era. Hilary was seen as a backbencher of his administration by several of the interviewees. The feeling amongst them now is that Bill will occupy the same roll.

Many immigrants take great pride in being able to vote in their adopted country, comparing it to their first communion. Among the immigrants interviewed in gathering information for this article, the slowing economy seemed their main concern, and several of them mentioned their fears of a recession more often than they mentioned the debate over immigration.