Suketu Mehta grew up in Jackson Heights, "the most ethnically diverse neighborhood in the U.S.A." He celebrates the fact that "two out of three New Yorkers are immigrants or their children":
They come because any newcomer stepping off the plane at JFK can find a place in the hierarchy of New York. If you look at a New York City restaurant, for example, the chef might be French, the people washing dishes might be Mexican, the hostess might be Russian, the taxi driver bringing the customers might be Pakistani, the owner might be British. They are not all equal. They earn different rates. But they work together, to get food to hungry people. It’s like the Hindu caste system: it’s not equitable, but everybody has a place.
Reihan edits this thought:
There is a small problem with this analogy, which is that New York’s caste system is not a caste system at all. Rather, New York is an imperfect machine for upward mobility, in which immigrants arrive in enclave communities, build assets, and then fan out to other cities and towns and regions. For many new arrivals, New York is a launch pad into middle class prosperity elsewhere.
The Dish 