A lot has been made of the growing gap between the rich and the poor in this country (Photo by Tony Fishcer).
The New York Times reports a good example of that might be in Queens where the neighborhood has seen strong job growth and workers with good paying jobs are thriving.
Yet at the same time poverty increased by six percent from 2008 to 2012 and the percentage of Asians classified as poor has increased to 29 percent, up from 22 percent.
“When you get off the 7 train, it’s bright and shiny and all this development is happening,” said Douglas Nam Le, the policy director at Asian Americans for Equality. “But while there are middle-income folks, there’s also this very concentrated poverty.”
The median income of Asian families in New York is over $52,000. That’s the second highest of any ethnic group just behind whites. But dig deeper and you find many Asians stuck in low paying job. The picture hardly fits the model minority stereotype.
You can read about what the city hopes to do about this disparity and some of the reasons behind it in the New York Times.