For The New York Times, Prof. José C. Moya discusses "Amerindian immigration from Latin America"

For The New York Times, Professor of History José C. Moya discussed the "an actual and dramatic increase of Amerindian immigration from Latin America."

An excerpt from the article "Hispanics Identifying Themselves as Indians":

"Dr. Moya attributes the increase to shifting patterns of immigration to the United States over the last two decades, from regions with larger indigenous populations, like southern Mexico and Central America, instead of northern Mexico.

Half of all Hispanics who moved to New York over the last 10 years were Mexican, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Most of them come from southern Mexico.

The pattern started in 1994 with the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which opened the American-Mexican border to more economic activity. To encourage foreign investment in Mexico, its government started to strip Indian landowners of a long-held legal protection from privatization. The resulting conflict awakened ethnic tensions that dated back centuries, and spurred a populist support of indigenous heritage."

Prof. Moya serves as the director of the Barnard Forum on Migration and teaches courses in Latin American history, Latin American civilization, and world migration.  He is the author of Cousins and Strangers: Spanish Immigrants in Buenos Aires, 1850-1930.