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Immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Colombia lead among Latin American countries as new citizens in the state of New York and part of the tri-state zone.

In fact, Dominicans they are the “champions” of all immigrants who achieve naturalization by adding 49 ,785 people who achieved that goal, out of a total of 402,904 new citizens, according to a recent report by the National Association for New Americans ( NPNA) and the Immigration Policy Center (USIPC) at the University of California, San Diego.

Behind this group are Ecuadorians with 10,842; followed by Colombians with ,097; leaving the Mexicans behind with 7,785, and the Salvadorans with 7,097. All achieved US citizenship between 2016 and 2020, according to the report.

In the global figures, after the Dominicans, the originating in the People’s Republic of China with 21,452 new citizens; Jamaica with 25,033; Bangladeshi with 20,368; Guyana with ,904, and India with 18,298.

Regarding the reason why Dominicans lead in New York as the immigrants who most obtain citizenship, Nancy Flores, deputy director of the NPNA, considers that there is a possible relationship with networks of community work among this population.

“Surely there are also resources and that is the work of the community organizations that are providing these services”, he considered.

The importance of New York

New York is home to 402,842 new citizens who achieved that benefit between 2016 and 2020, indicates the report.

“New York is the third state in the nation behind California and Florida when it comes to the largest number of new naturalized citizens in the country”, it is added, returning to a first part of this analysis given released last July.

The report adds that New York will be a key state during the midterm elections on November 8 this year, where new American voters can influence the result.

New York ranks 10 in the nation in which New American Voter Impact Model, but it is one of the most diverse entities in terms of migrant population.

“New York, I am speaking specifically of the state, yes, a broader diversity is seen and that is definitely something that we see as a strength,” Flores said. “We do see that there are several continents of several countries and many languages, so what those state reports also help with is also helping people who are working with grassroots communities to know in what languages ​​and in what places in the state they should, for example, programming things like commercials, flyers”.

The report notes that the New York-Newark-Jersey City metropolitan area, which includes New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, has the highest concentration of naturalized citizens with almost 3.9 million, followed by the greater Rochester area with almost 48,, and then the Albany-Schenectady-Troy metropolitan area with close to 45,.

Flores stressed that the report is nonpartisan, in addition to acknowledging that in various surveys of new citizens, they they express their concern about immigration issues, economic issues and security issues.

And what about the Mexicans?

Despite being a growing migrant population, those from Mexico continue to show little interest in obtaining US citizenship, despite the protection it means and the rights that are acquired.

Flores indicated that other studies have revealed this national trend, which does not exclude New York, added to the fact that most Mexicans apply for citizenship do so after 18 years living in the US

“They do it after being here for many years, we talk about 20 years or more in several cases” , he exposed. “In reality, many of these issues are a lot of lack of information, what we have seen, many people still have the belief that it is incorrect now, in one day it was true, that many people think that they can lose their Mexican citizenship if they become citizens. and that is not true”.

He added that another limitation is the economic situation, due to the cost of applying for citizenship and the investment to pay a lawyer.

“We know that cost is an obstacle that has been seen in many places,” he stressed. “For example, in California for the first time in the entire history of the state this year they launched a state fund that people can apply for scholarships and that covers part of their application and I think it is something very interesting for the state like New York. that has a large population of immigrants and could also see this model”.

He also pointed out the language as a fear that detains Mexicans, since they believe that they could not pass the civics test before the office of Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

“Well, it’s the language, of course many people too, specifically of Mexican origin, we see that it is an obstacle,” he said. “They say: ‘I don’t think I’m going to pass, because I don’t speak English well,’ and they just leave it there with the Green Card”.

In productive ages

Most of the new citizens are young; at economically productive ages, that is, they can contribute to the US in various fields and pay taxes.

The 50% of naturalized citizens in New York are between 25 and 45 years old; 9% between 000 and 21 years; the between 45 Y 55 years; the 14% between and 65 years, and the rest are older than 65 years. The 65% are women.

“For me it is one of the most important points when we see who is becoming a citizen, as you have said 26 Percent, which is a significant figure, there are not a few people… they are between 25 Y 34 years, we are talking about this youth, millennial people, people who are very into technology, who are activated and that is also very important,” Flores stressed. “The population of people becoming citizens in recent years in New York State is extremely young and I think this presents a great opportunity.”

By Scribe