The Gentrification of Asian American Communities in New York City: A Race or Class Issue

Abstract

Why study the gentrification of Asian American communities? Since 2010, the Asian American population in New York City has increased by 345,000 and now makes up 15.6 percent of the entire city population.[i] Despite this, there is little research on how this community interacts with the larger city society. While New York City is often cited as an example of gentrification, those research projects tend to explore the displacement of black and Hispanic people, rather than Asian Americans. It is pertinent to not place the movement of Asian Americans under the same umbrella because of the unique challenges that they face — most critically, the language barrier and the concept of being a “model minority”.