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immigrants a new voting bloc? Among the 2.4 million
people who went to the city's polls
last November, there were 185,000 foreign-born who
were voting for the first time, according to a study
released in February (Daily
News). The poll found immigrants' concerns
parallel those of other New Yorkers - with jobs, the
economy, the Iraq war and health care cited as the
major issues.
Immigrants have a reason to concern about
health care. A recent
study (in PDF format) by City Comptroller William
Thompson corroborated
immigrants'
anecdotal
complaints
about hospital access. Of the hospitals studied, 75
percent lacked access to interpreters
in clinics, on the phone, in emergency departments
or in billing departments. More than 3.5 million New
Yorkers speak another language at home. Of these people,12
percent of the city’s population age five and
older report they speak English “not well” or “not
at all.”
In this March edition
of The Citizen, we take a look at the ongoing litigation
on driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants, the
end of the fast-track green card program, the rise
of same-sex households among immigrants and child rearing
in Spanish
speaking homes. Stories from
the Bengali, Chinese, Korean, Polish, Spanish-language
and Urdu press via our partner, Voices That
Must Be Heard.
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