New York and New Jersey rank among the most diverse states in the country, with foreign-born residents making up 22.1% and 23.9% of their populations respectively. That diversity didn’t happen overnight. It’s the result of overlapping waves of migration stretching back centuries, each driven by different economic pressures, policy changes, and community networks that pulled specific groups into specific neighborhoods.
Early European Immigration Set the Foundation
New York and New Jersey were diverse from the start, at least by colonial standards. The Dutch settled New Amsterdam (later New York) as a commercial venture, attracting traders and workers from across Europe. By the time the English took control in 1664, the colony already had residents speaking more than a dozen languages. New Jersey, split between East and West Jersey proprietors, drew English Quakers, Scots, Dutch farmers, and Scandinavians into different pockets of the state.
The massive wave of European immigration between roughly 1880 and 1924 transformed both states. Irish and German immigrants had already reshaped New York City by mid-century, but the later wave brought millions of Italians, Eastern European Jews, Poles, and others through Ellis Island. Many stayed in New York City or settled in northern New Jersey’s industrial cities like Newark, Paterson, and Elizabeth, where factory jobs were plentiful. These communities established the ethnic neighborhood pattern that still defines parts of the region: Little Italy, the Lower East Side, the Ironbound district in Newark.
The Great Migration Reshaped Urban Centers
Starting in the 1910s, Black Americans began leaving the South in enormous numbers, a movement now called the Great Migration. Six million people ultimately made the journey, and four million of them moved between 1940 and 1970 alone. In 1910, roughly 90% of Black Americans lived in the South. By 1970, that share had fallen to just over 50%.
New York City and Newark were two of the primary destinations. Harlem became the cultural capital of Black America during the 1920s, and neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx absorbed later arrivals. In New Jersey, Newark’s Central Ward and other urban neighborhoods grew rapidly. These migrants were escaping Jim Crow laws, sharecropping, and racial violence, while pursuing industrial jobs that paid significantly more than agricultural work in the South. The communities they built didn’t just add to the population numbers. They created cultural institutions, churches, music scenes, and political organizations that permanently changed the character of both states.
The 1965 Immigration Act Changed Everything
Before 1965, U.S. immigration policy used a quota system that heavily favored Northern and Western Europeans. The Hart-Celler Act of 1965 eliminated those national-origin quotas and instead prioritized family reunification and skilled workers. The lawmakers who passed it predicted it would not significantly change the demographic makeup of the country. They were wrong.
The law opened the door to large-scale immigration from Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa. New York and New Jersey, already home to established immigrant communities and major ports of entry, became top destinations. Caribbean immigrants, particularly from the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Haiti, and Trinidad, settled heavily in New York City boroughs and northern New Jersey. Chinese immigration accelerated into Manhattan’s Chinatown and later into Flushing, Queens. Korean, Filipino, and South Asian communities grew throughout both states.
The family reunification provision created a chain effect. Once one family member established legal residency, they could sponsor relatives, who could then sponsor more relatives. This is why certain nationalities cluster in specific areas: the first arrivals created a beachhead, and family networks did the rest.
Ethnic Enclaves and Community Networks
Jersey City offers one of the clearest examples of how community networks concentrate immigrant populations. Indian immigrants began settling along Newark Avenue in the 1970s. By 1986, roughly 15,000 Indians lived in Jersey City, and the area known as India Square became home to the highest concentration of Asian Indians in the Western Hemisphere. By 2010, Asian Indians made up 10.9% of Jersey City’s total population, rising to 11.4% by 2013.
The pattern repeated across the region. Koreans concentrated in Fort Lee, New Jersey and Flushing, Queens. Cubans settled in Union City and West New York, New Jersey. Ecuadorians clustered in Jackson Heights, Queens. Brazilians built a community in Newark’s Ironbound district alongside the older Portuguese population. In each case, the logic was similar: the first wave of immigrants established businesses, houses of worship, and social networks. Those institutions made the neighborhood livable for newcomers who spoke the same language and shared the same culture, which attracted more arrivals, which supported more institutions.
This isn’t random. Immigrants choose destinations where they already know someone, where they can find familiar food and services, and where established community members can help them find work and housing. That practical reality is why diversity in the New York and New Jersey region isn’t evenly distributed. It’s concentrated in specific neighborhoods with deep roots.
Cost of Living Drives Secondary Migration
A less obvious but powerful force shaping diversity in the region is the constant movement of people from New York City into New Jersey. Of the residents who left New York City in recent years, 18% moved to New Jersey, the second most common destination after other parts of New York State.
The primary driver is cost. New York City’s high rents, limited space, and expensive childcare push families outward, particularly when they’re ready to have children or need more room. This pressure hits lower-income households hardest. As the pandemic eased and inflation surged, Black and Hispanic households, which have lower median incomes and higher poverty rates, began leaving the city in significant numbers. Large rent increases on limited housing supply accelerated the trend.
This migration doesn’t reduce the region’s diversity. It redistributes it. Communities that were once predominantly white suburbs in northern and central New Jersey have become significantly more diverse as families of all backgrounds move outward from the city. Towns along NJ Transit rail lines and near major highways have absorbed the most newcomers, because commuting back to New York for work remains common even after a move.
Why This Region Specifically
Other major metro areas attracted immigrants too, but several factors made New York and New Jersey unusually diverse rather than dominated by one or two immigrant groups. The region has both a massive service economy and remaining industrial and warehouse jobs, creating entry points for workers at every skill level. JFK Airport and Newark Liberty Airport are major international gateways. The Port of New York and New Jersey supports logistics and trade jobs. The sheer size of the metro economy means there’s demand for labor across dozens of industries simultaneously.
Geography matters as well. New Jersey’s position directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan means it functions as an extension of the New York City economy while offering lower housing costs and more space. That combination has made it a natural second step for immigrant families who start in the city’s densest neighborhoods and move outward as they establish themselves financially. The result is a two-state region where nearly one in four residents was born in another country, and where over 200 languages are spoken in everyday life.