“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow mindedness… Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of earth all one’s lifetime,” written by Mark Twain.

…and echoed by City Tech students enrolled in Sustainable Tourism classes. We encourage you to expand your view of the world—right here in Brooklyn!

Background
New York City is home to over three million immigrants—half a million of them arriving in the last decade. In 1992, Congress passed legislation granting large-scale immigration from parts of the world whose residents had not previously settled here in large numbers.

Brooklyn serves as the first settlement for many new immigrants. As the city’s most populous borough, Brooklyn is home to nearly 31% of the city’s 8 million residents. Census data from 2000 and 1990 reveal the borough’s newest inhabitants are most likely to arrive from Caribbean nations, Latino countries, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe or Asia.

Brooklyn’s ethnically diverse population provides a rich framework for an abundance of multi-cultural activities, destinations and services. Centuries of traditions, cultural experiences and celebrations have been transformed into American life as new immigrants settle here.

Immigrant Trails
This project identifies and highlights Brooklyn’s global pathways with a website of community-based tourism sites celebrating the borough’s ethnic and cultural diversity. The criteria for selecting the destinations reflects:

• Sites with links to the borough’s four largest ethnic population bases:
Caribbean; Eastern European/ Russian; Hispanic; Italian

• Sites located along public transportation routes of MTA bus and subway lines. Utilizing public transportation is consistent with sustainable tourism standards—which is tourism that sustains and enhances a location, versus tourism that takes away or detracts from a site.

• Sites identified as representative of the specific ethnic community highlighted and appealing to a cross- segment of the population.

More sites will be added focusing on additional ethnic communities, activities and destinations.

Immigrant Trails

Project is Directed by:
   Professor Karen L. Smith, Sustainable Tourism
   New York City College of Technology, CUNY

...Managed by:
   Karen Lundstrem, Director of Instructional Technology
   Ignacio Soltero, Web Designer
   Evelyn Pak, JavaScripting and Web Developer

...Research coordinated by:
   Patina Billey, Research Assistant for Caribbean Sites
   Cheavon Braff, Research Assistant for Hispanic Sites
   Inga Gadek Taper, Research Assistant for Eastern European/ Russian Sites
   Tahreem Pasha, Research Assistant for Italian Sites
   Natasha Brown, Research Assistant
   Iga Czapla, Research Assistant
   Sustainable Tourism Class, New York City College of Technology

...Supported by:
   CUNY Diversity Fund Project
   The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce
   The MTA

Funding for this project has been provided by a grant from the CUNY Affirmative Action Committee. Also contributing support to this effort is the MTA, the Gotham Gazette and the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. Artwork & portions of the Subway Map© 2002 are owned by MTA New York City Transit and commissioned by Metropolitan Transportation Authority Arts for Transit.

Immigrant Trails Links
Caribbean Sites
Eastern European & Russian Sites
Hispanic Sites
Italian Sites