140,000 Guyanese living in New York City – survey
The report says that it makes them the fifth-largest foreign-born population in the city. While many Afro-Guyanese immigrants have settled among other Afro-Caribbean immigrants in places like Canarsie and Flatbush in Brooklyn, Guyanese of South Asian descent are concentrated in large numbers in Richmond Hill and neighbouring Ozone Park.
Here is the entry on Guyanese in the New York Times article:
Take the A Train to Little Guyana- City’s Newest Immigrant Enclaves, From Little Guyana to Meokjagolmok <click link
Guyanese
Richmond Hill, Queens
On a Friday afternoon in early spring, his work done for the day, Kawal P. Totaram leaned back in his desk chair in his Richmond Hill law office on Liberty Avenue and dreamed of summer.
“You will be inundated by the different whiffs of curry and roti,” he began. “Your ears will be jarred by chutney music and Indian music. You’ll see women wearing short skirts and saris, men without a shirt, people with their cups, vendors yelling, the guys cursing. You’ll have the bars packed with young men drinking rum.” He smiled. This, he said, was Guyanese Richmond Hill at its fullest.
There are about 140,000 Guyanese immigrants living in New York City, according to the latest American Community Survey figures, making them the fifth-largest foreign-born population in the city. While many Afro-Guyanese immigrants have settled among other Afro-Caribbean immigrants in places like Canarsie and Flatbush in Brooklyn, Guyanese of South Asian descent are concentrated in large numbers in Richmond Hill and neighboring Ozone Park.
The lively Liberty Avenue and its tributaries are lined with roti shops, restaurants and bakeries like Sybil’s Bakery & Restaurant (132-17 Liberty Avenue; 718-835-9235), two branches of Little Guyana Bake Shop (116-04 Liberty Avenue, 718-843-6530, and 124-11 Liberty Avenue, 718-843-4200), and The Hibiscus Restaurant & Bar (124-18 101st Avenue; 718- 849-4225); shops selling all manner of goods, from spices to saris, like Dave West Indian Imports (98-07 97th Avenue; 718-323-1200); dancing schools and political clubs; “rum shops”; and community associations. The neighborhood is peppered with mosques, temples and churches to accommodate the population’s Hindus, Muslims and Christians.
Describing life in the diaspora, Mr. Totaram said, “As I put it, you go to bed in America, you sleep in Guyana and you wake up back in America.” Still, for Guyanese immigrants, Richmond Hill, when viewed from the right angle, can be a pretty good approximation of home.
Getting there: Take the A train to the Ozone Park-Lefferts Boulevard stop.
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Related Content [Stabroek News]
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New York Guyanese campaign for Richmond Hill to remain a single council district (August 27, 2012)
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NY Guyanese oppose rezoning of Richmond Hill (December 27, 2011)
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Guyanese Americans should have an interest in New York district elections on September 13 (September 10, 2011)
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Targeting of Guyanese Indians by police in Richmond Hill, New York (February 7, 2007)
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Guyanese celebrate Christmas in New York as if they were at home (December 23, 2010)
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Comments
Amazing!
That is the will and determination of a Progressive People who preferred not to sit down and be trampled upon but stand up and be counted. The rule of the late LFSB encouraged people to run with all their might and strength to Britain, USA and Canada and even in the Caribbean to any country that would have taken them. The Outward migration statistics from Guyana since 1961 are in the Guyanese Immigration Records and can speak for themselves. Some one need to officially carry out a survey of 50 years of Outward Migration from Guyana to see the effects of bad Governance on a small population in an area as big as 83,000 sq miles. Today’s inward migration include many Venezuealans, Brazilians, and other Latinos. The same story is told of Guyanese in Canada and the United Kingdom!
I do not have any numbers to support my gut feeling – that there are more “born Guyanese” living abroad than there are in Guyana itself.
Ron
Dont think even the Guyana government has the stats….but I go along with
your suggestion “more Guyanese born living abroad than in Guyana”
especially if you were referring to adults…over 18’s.
It called the “BRAIN DRAIN”….LFSB was very aware of this
but not unlike CASTRO of CUBA he even helped them on their way.
When CLINTON and CASTRO disagreed on which country was freer
Castro emptied his jails of dissidents…..
I have always argued that “JAILS” are the university of crime….
Some of the biggest criminals are not in jail.
Today it cost 5times as much to build jails than 5 star hotels.
Canada is now building more “state of the art” prisons
Why ! Maybe HARPER knows why !,
UK it cost 500 pounds a week to feed-clothe-house a prisoner…
so magistrates are awarding “community service” in lieu of incarseration…
the offenders are “micro chipped” and must report to nearest police station.
…the risk is that some dangerous criminals may slip through the net.
Sorry I strayed from Guyana s dilemma….young educated and informed
will “always walk the talk” ….and today even more than yesteryears.
The government must focus on the youths as they are the citizens
of tomorrow.
My spin entirely.
Kamptan
It is true that the demographic breakdown- South Asian Guyanese and African Guyanese- establishing themselves as a gentry in specific enclave is nothing new in the immigrant experience. But, to state it as Mr. Totoram did , “sleeping in Guyana and wake up in America”, implies his emigrant status and not really travelling the road of being truly an immigrant.
And, to fuse it- dempgraphics- with an integrational approach within the disapora of the African experience, not only surfaces the underbelly of a hidden and racial tone of a divided people, but one that needs healing. It is time that we see ourselves as Guyanese
Wenthworth
..
Guyanese “first” everything else second.!….the way forward.
In Guyana its “Indian” or “African” “Chinese” etc etc “first”
sometimes more derogatory racists “first” followed by the person
etc etc…..when such racists remarks are embedded in society
culturally it will take strong political leadership to effect change.
Unfortunately I do not see that happening at present…..and it saddens
me….outrageously sometimes.
Kamptan