Jackson Heights: Diversity City
By Esther Beck and Elena Bauermeister
On a sweltering afternoon in Jackson Heights, Queens, Samir Maharjan dutifully runs Queens Diamond & Jewelry, standing proudly behind a row of glass cases and greeting customers as they browse his collection.
Maharjan, a Nepalese immigrant, came to the United States in 2005 to sell what he calls the “most valuable minerals in the world.”
“This is my family business, and we started from Nepal, of course,” he says about the cozy store stationed on 74th street.
Since the shop opened its doors in Nepal in 1997, other branches have started in India, Hong Kong, Germany, Australia, and Maryland.
But Queens is Maharjan’s favorite and central location.
“Economy-wise, it’s the most convenient and a welcoming environment for everyone,” he said.
Maharjan has lived in the U.S. for 11 years and is currently settled in Long Island with his wife, Surya, who stood by his side as he talked. The couple’s three children, ages four, 12, and 15, also live with them in New Hyde Park.
America brings promise for him, he said, describing the readily available resources he found here that allowed his family to adjust well to life in the United States. Jackson Heights welcomes new immigrants with open arms, he said, helping people of all walks of life get a foot in the door.
According to the multiple Jackson Heights businesses consulted for this article, there has been an influx of Bangladeshi immigrants to the area since the turn of the 21st century, causing significant changes for many local Indian and Nepalese businesses. With more Bangladeshi immigrants, many business owners and managers have seen increased profits and created new jobs for the newcomers to the region, illustrating a successful integration of the South Asian community.
Jackson Heights is the most diverse neighborhood in Queens, which is itself the most diverse county in the United States, according to Andrew Silverstein, a local tour guide and founder of tour company Streetwise.
The neighborhood has traditionally been an immigrant enclave since it shifted in the mid-1900s from its White Anglo-Saxon Protestant core to its modern, diverse self. In the 1970s and 80s, the neighborhood experienced a sudden influx of South Asian immigrants, further diversifying its established base of people of Colombian, Ecuadorian, and Indian heritage. The most recent influx of immigrants to this rapidly changing neighborhood has brought members of the Bangladeshi community into close quarters with an already established community of Indian-Americans.
“Well, they were mostly collaborative,” said Faiza Poshni, a second-generation Pakistani immigrant who grew up in the area during Jackson Heights’ diversification in the 70s and 80s. “Mostly because they felt it, because they were all immigrants, they all felt that they were away from their homelands, and they probably just kind of missed it and they knew what each other was going through.”
This characteristic seems to still be standing today for the South Asian community of Jackson Heights: the ability to cohesively join together different cultures and religions in the area into one collaborative ideology, centered on correlative immigrant experiences.
To begin with, there are areas of compatibility between their cultures. For example, nowadays, fewer Indians are vegetarians, just 31%, according to a 2011 survey by the Indian Government. This meshes with the meat-based menus of Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Nepalese restaurants. Besides that, they practice the same few core religions, namely Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, that are represented in the minorities of their home countries.
And despite their varied origins, several of the recent immigrant communities speak languages with common roots — Bengali, Urdu, Hindi and Nepali.
“There’s all a little bit of language that we all understand,” said Shakil Hasan, the Bangladeshi manager at Ittadi Grill and Garden.
Hasan has witnessed the economic hardships of the new immigrants, identifying that obstacle as something else that unites the community.
“Both the Indians and the Bangladeshis are struggling,” he said, sitting in the corner booth of an Indian restaurant with fluorescent lights, which had been converted from a movie theater into a sit-down dining grill.
Although they may go through some rough patches economically, the recently settled Bangladeshis find a smooth transition into America, according to Kamelia Mostafa, a member of the Bangladeshi community in Jackson Heights.
“It is my country people, all of the people,” says Kamelia Mostafa, a young female immigrant, leaning against a storefront on 74th street. “It feels good. When you see your country-people, you are happy, right? Well, me too.”
Having Bengali as a dominant language in the neighborhood also makes communication easier for those who are still learning English. A local newspaper, The Bangla Times, prints in Bengali and caters to Bangladeshi audiences.
This new wave of Bangladeshi immigration is changing the sense some Indian business owners had of the neighborhood. Some said that so many stores and restaurants are now Bangladeshi-owned and run that the Nepalese and Indian business had to evolve to keep up.
“We used to get a lot of people from India, people from Pakistan, but now recently, in the last six, seven, eight years, this place is becoming a Bangladeshi town,” Manu Khiatani, an Indian immigrant and owner of India Sari Palace, said genially, pointing toward the streets outside the brightly-colored store. “You won’t even recognize if you come to Jackson Heights,” he said.
“They had the festival, the Eid festival,” Khiatani said of the recent celebration marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. “You would think you were in Bangladesh, you wouldn’t even feel like you were in America.”
India Sari Palace, a local establishment of 25 years, has been affected by the dynamic culture of its adopted neighborhood. Starting in 1971 on Madison Avenue in Manhattan, the business moved to 74th street and has been flourishing in Jackson Heights’ economic climate since. Khiatani said that the increase of Bangladeshis in the neighborhood has benefited his business.
It had a “very positive effect,” he said. “Not positive, very positive,” he repeated for emphasis.
Khitani said the Indian and Bangladeshi communities get along well in Jackson Heights.
“We have no complaints with them,” Khiatani said. “They are very humble people, you know, as long as you respect them.”
“In fact now, most of our customers are Bangladeshis,” he continued. “You can say 70 percent of the customers which come to our store are Bangladeshi customers.”
Khiatani went so far as to call Jackson Heights “diversity city.”
Recent increases in the Bangladeshi population of Jackson Heights have also benefited the Bangladeshi immigrants in the neighborhood, opening many new jobs.
“Bangladeshi people, when they come to the store, they are more comfortable with their own people,” he said. “They talk with them in their own language, so that’s the reason we have quite a few Bangladeshi girls working with us.”
Khiatani employs six women and one man from Bangladesh to serve his new clientele. On Tuesday, they could be seen behind a ‘Help’ desk farther into the colorful store, folding saris and brightly hued shirts.
His inventory, mainly imported from India, is very appealing to the Bangladeshis, he said
“They love Indian things, the Bangladeshi people,” said Khiatani. “They don’t get it in their country. Whenever they go home, they buy a lot of the saris and fabrics from us.”
It’s not just Khiatani who sees this.
“Most of the customer, they’re Asian, so we’re getting more customer,” Roy Sukanta explained from the doorway of the main Bangladesh Farmacia, describing what effects the South Asian immigration has had on his business. He’s been the manager of the pharmacy chain for ten years, the time span that he’s lived in America. Having immigrated here from Bangladesh in 2006, he understands the needs of the incoming immigrants, supplying all sorts of remedies — from halal vitamins and turmeric to evening primrose oil — that one wouldn’t find in an average American CVS.
The sight of countless Bangladeshi cafes and bazaars on the street indicates that the diversity of the Jackson Heights economy is continuing to grow. Just one block can contain a few bazaars and markets, usually separated by a few jewelry stores, sari shops, and restaurants. Any foods that one could possibly want can be found — even kosher South Indian dosas. The sights and smells of the streets illustrate how international the neighborhood really is.
