Similarities Between New York City Demographics And Cultural Differences

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New York Demographics and Cultural Differences
Introduction
Globalization has brought together people from varied cultural backgrounds (Gerstein & Canel 188). Different professionals have found themselves working with people whose cultural backgrounds are very different from their own (Mahadevan 8-9). This paper discusses New York City’s demographics and the associated cultures.
New York City Demographics
New York City is the United States’ largest city with an estimated population of more than eight million residents (State and County Quick Facts 6). Its population density is 10,194 people per square kilometre. Although the majority of residents can speak English there is still a significant
number who cannot use the language. More than eight-hundred different languages are spoken in the city (Schwegler 25). In 2010, New York City was comprised of 44% whites, 25.5% blacks, 12.7% Asians, and 28.6% Latinos and Hispanics (Shwegler 28).
Some of the most common languages spoken among other nations are: Chinese, Hindi, Spanish and Arabic, to mention a few.
But most importantly, the make-up of the family and communities is what greatly differentiates other nations from white Christian Americans. Variant ethnicities lead to unique religious practices, as Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Catholicism have specific features (Carnes & Yang 13). All of this leads to interconnected communities. For example, Asian families are more united and develop closer ties with relatives. This creates communities that support each other better. Social programs must be established which in turn, will increase the quality of common living conditions. Family size is also larger for non-American families because the citizens of the United States rely more on individuality and development of personal characteristics, whereas other nationalities greatly depend on relatives and siblings. This leads to couples having more children, greatly enlarging families in comparison to the American
communities.
New York City is also a big importer of students.
The city’s higher education department delivers about 120,000 graduates to the labour market annually (Schwegler 28). Although 27% of its population have a minimum of bachelor’s degree qualifications, there is a small percentage that still lacks basic education (Schwegler 28-30).
New York City is also one of the cities experiencing high level of income disparities (Shwegler 32). On average, in 2005, the annual income for the rich was $188,697 while the poor only earned $9,320 (Schwegler 32). This dictates the quality of housing and other services that people can afford.
In 2010, there were 3,371,062 housing units in New York City, with a home ownership rate of 32.6% (Shwegler 33). In the same year, there were 3,049,978 households with an average of 3 people per household. The 2010 per capita income was $31,417 and the average household income was $51,270. It is worth noting that 19.4% of the people were living below the poverty line (Shwegler 33-34).
Implications of the Diverse
Culture
New York cultural differences can cause serious challenges in provision and reception of some professional services (Barinaga 5). According to Barinaga, differences in languages, perceptions and lifestyles can hinder communication, and the understanding between parties from different cultural backgrounds (5). In this case, health care providers and other professionals would have problems in handling people who do not share common languages. Even after addressing language problems, different lifestyles and expectations can delay service delivery and leave some groups disadvantaged, which is a recipe for social-economic imbalances (Barinaga 6). This means that in order for the prevailing social-economic inequalities to be eliminated from New York City, people have to find ways of enhancing good intercultural communication (Otten & Geppert 32).
Conclusion
It is an unfortunate fact, but all the different nationalities and communities are still widely secluded from each other. Each one has a unique belief system, traditions and community make-up (Hero 8). Often, this leads to misunderstandings and discrimination, which is why people should do more research about the culture and norms of other nations. Learning the languages of others or setting up common community centres or social programs would better the relationship and familiarize with other people’s values and goals.

Works Cited
Barinaga, Ester. Performative View of Language. Methodological Considerations and Consequences for the Study of Culture. Forum Qualitative Social Research,10.1 (2009): 5-8. Print.
Carnes, Tony & Yang, Fenggang. Asian American Religions: The Making and Remaking of Borders and Boundaries. New York, NY: NYU Press, 2004. Print.
Gerstein, Lawrence & Canel, Deniz. Equivalence, bias, and translations methodological issues en Cross-Cultural Counselling Research. The Counselling Psychologist, 36.2 (2008): 188-219. Print.
Hero, Rodney. Racial Diversity and Social Capital: Equality and Community in America. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Print.
Mahadevan, Jasmin. Redefining Organizational Cultures. An Interpretative Anthropological Approach to Corporate Narratives. Forum Qualitative Social Research, 10.1 (2009): 8-10. Print.
Otten, Matthias & Geppert, Judith. Mapping the Landscape of Qualitative Research on Intercultural Communication. A Hitchhiker 's Guide to the Methodological Galaxy. Forum Qualitative Social Research, 10.1 (2009): 30-35). Print.
Schwegler, Ulrike. The challenge of researching trust in intercultural cooperation. Forum Qualitative Social Research, 10.1 (2012): 24-34. Print.
State and County Quick Facts. United States Census Bureau, 67.3 (2012): 1-4. Print.