"Mexican baby boom" in New York City

Filed in archive Latin Culture , Latin News on June 4, 2007

The New York Times is reporting today a "Mexican baby boom" in New York City:

A new analysis by city demographers showed a 28 percent increase in births to Mexican women living here from 2000 to 2005, with 8,234 babies born in 2005, the last year for which statistics were available. For the first time, the number of babies born to Mexican women surpassed births to Dominican-born women, which dropped by more than 10 percent in the same period.

Native-born mothers, who account for fewer than half of all births in the city, had 7 percent fewer babies over the five years. And with births to foreign-born women showing only a small increase, the total was down by 3 percent.

For the first time there are more babies born to Mexican women than to Dominican women, in New York. Dr. Iffath Hoskins, from the Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn, said:

"They're fresh immigrants. Girls are having babies, becoming wives and mothers at a far earlier age. They tend to have more children because they bring their Mexican culture with them."

However, Alyshia F. Galvez, a cultural anthropologist, says about Mexican women who give birth in New York:

"These women are coming from families of 6, 7, 11, 12 siblings. Usually they have two children, and when you ask, 'How many would you like to have?' they usually say three."

It's a big change, and I think it's a positive change. Nobody needs 12 children. On the other hand, it seems like Mexican moms are assimilating the "American culture", but keeping a good deal of their Mexican culture. Way to go!