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C Ch ha ap pt te er r 1 10 0 Refugee Resettlement in Utica, New York: Opportunities and Issues for Community Development ELLEN PERCY KRALY AND KRISTIN VANVALKENBURG INTRODUCTION Several recent studies have documented the role of international migration in the dynamics of demographic change in selected U.S. metropolitan areas. Salvo and Lobo (1996) revealed the importance of international migration in metropolitan and intra-metropolitan population trends in New York City (see also Lobo, Salvo and Flores, 2002; Bhattacharjee, 2002; Kraly, 2002; and Kraly and Miyares, 2001). Camarota and Keeley (2001) presented a comprehensive perspective on the expansion of a range of gateway cities, the “new Ellis Islands ,” which reflect increasing diversity in the settlement patterns of immigrants to the United States. In their monograph on Washington, D.C., Singer et al. (2001) illustrate the emergence of new metropoles of U.S. immigration and changing urban landscapes. Consistent with this emerging area of social demographic scholarship, the research presented in this chapter examines the impact of international migration on Utica, New York. As most cities in upstate New York, Utica experienced absolute and large population loss during the 1990s. Unlike other cities beyond the metropolitan catchment of New York City, however, Utica’s population loss would have been much larger, perhaps a decline of about 20 percent, had it not been for the influx of over 7,000 international migrants during the same ten-year period, a characteristic Utica holds in common with the big apple downstate. While Utica was a location of immigrant settlement at the beginning of the 20th century, it has not been imagined as an immigrant or gateway city in this current era of large-scale immigration to the United States. Relative to its population size and geography, however, international migration has had significant and dramatic consequences for urban landscape and community development in Utica. International migration is of a very specific form, moreover, reflecting the refugee resettlement initiatives of a single community action program, the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees. This chapter examines the role of a specific flow of international migrants, refugees, in the demography and population geography of Utica, a city characterized in recent years by overall population loss, shifting patterns of population composition, housing tenure and residence, and a contracting industrial base. We raise several issues with regard to this urban community with a lens to identifying areas of future policy relevant research and analysis. Specifically, we consider: 1) the role of international migration in the population dynamics of Utica metropolitan area and city; 2) refugee resettlement goals and programs in Utica; 3) the effect of refugee resettlement on ethnic composition, residential patterns, neighborhoods and housing; and, briefly 4) the role of refugees in the economy of the region and the emergence and viability of immigrant businesses. Within each of these areas we propose research questions that we suggest hold relevance for policy, programs and planning in the Utica urban community. We conclude by noting the general challenges confronting the analysis of international migration to regions within the United States beyond what are traditionally considered to be large gateway cities, and offer a specific proposal for research intended to contribute to understanding the relationship between refugee resettlement and community development in the Utica metropolitan area. We begin by placing Utica within the context of national migration policy, and trends in international migration to the United States and the region. 126 Ellen Percy Kraly & Kristin VanValkenburg INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES AND THE NORTHEAST: TRENDS AND POLICY Figure 10.1 displays the trend in international migration to the United States since the beginning of the collection of U.S. immigration statistics in 1820. The peaks of immigration during the late 19th and early 20th century reflect the response to the demand for industrial labor and also the need for asylum from religious and political persecution in Europe. These high levels of immigration, channeled largely toward industrial cities of the Northeast and Midwest, were followed by valleys deriving from highly restrictive national origins quotas passed by Congress beginning in 1921, as well as the great depression. In the years 1930–34, more persons emigrated from the United States than entered. In the decades following the second world war, U.S. immigration steadily increased, again reflecting the demand for labor and family reunification, as well as refugee resettlement which continued in step with foreign policy interests during the 1950s and 1960s (see Kraly 1990; and Zolberg 1990). Major immigration reform was...

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