With nearly 40% of New Yorkers born outside the U.S., politics is now a fertile field for immigrants
It took Irish, Italians and Jews decades before their numerical strength translated into political clout. But now, first-generation members of the city's emerging immigrant middle class are winning elections and shaking up the status quo. Take John Liu. City Council minority-group members used to rally around the Black and Latino Caucus. Then along came Liu. Liu, 37, arrived in Flushing from Taiwan at age 5. His mother toiled in city sweatshops, while he went to school and ultimately earned a degree in math and physics at SUNY Binghamton. In 2001, he became the city's first Asian Council member. Liu's district, which is 48% Asian, was ruled for 12 years by Julia Harrison, a white politician who triggered an ethnic firestorm in 1996 when she grumbled publicly that Queens Asians were "more like colonizers than immigrants." [
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