New Delhi: Who is an immigrant in New York City? The key question is the first one to be ignored in the controversy over the ‘New York City Immigrant Enclaves’ map.
The map was posted online by NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration Wednesday in conjunction with a tourism guide aimed at the World Cup. It drew instant backlash over the absence of Italian, Irish, and Jewish neighbourhoods.
Now, Italians on X are condemning the exclusion of Little Italy from a map that found space for Little Palestine and Little India. Their ancestors, they argue, played a big role in building the city.
“Italian Americans BUILT NEW YORK CITY. Not third world Ugandans, We stand AGAINST COMMUNISTS!” The Italian American Civil Rights League posted on X.
Some connected the ‘Italian snub’ to Mamdani’s past condemnation of Christopher Columbus.
You know what to do, New York. Go bigger than ever this Columbus Day. Reject the communist clown and his erasure. 🇺🇸🇮🇹 https://t.co/vcNpiXTWYd
— House Republicans (@HouseGOP) July 9, 2026
Some on the social media platform assert that the map was about immigrant populations, not ethnicities.
“Little Italy in Manhattan ain’t an enclave. It’s a tourist block. My quickly gentrifying hood in Brooklyn is more Italian than that,” wrote Italian-American TV presenter Aaron Sagers on 10 July (IST).
A user named Phantom Menace Defender agreed. His bio describes him as ‘Communist. Marxist. Muslim.’
“Liitle Italy (Manhattan) is not a real enclave. It’s three restaurants in a trench coat. Probably could have added Bronx Little Italy to satisfy our Italianx comrades. But the map is immigrant enclaves not ethnic enclave. Bronx Little Italy is like 3rd and 4th generation,” read the post.
‘It’s about foreign-born populations’
Writer Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt criticised the supposed exclusion of Jewish neighbourhoods using sarcasm.
“The Mayor’s Office made a map of NYC’s immigrant enclaves: Little Africa, Little Poland, Little Palestine. But they just couldn’t figure out how to represent 11% of the city. Couldn’t decipher where the Jews are from. Asked everyone. Huge riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma,” she wrote.
Jewish New Yorker here.
Most Jews here are not recent immigrants, they have been here for multiple generations.
The most Jewish areas of NYC aren’t immigrant enclaves.
The UES & UWS aren’t. The Hasidic/Orthodox neighborhoods in South Williamsburg, Crown Heights & Borough Park… https://t.co/NhmHiqGMLQ
— Adam Carlson (@admcrlsn) July 9, 2026
Mamdani’s team has since pointed out that the map was first released by the Eric Adams administration in 2023, Politico reported. It was updated with four neighbourhoods by the current administration using data from a Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs report. One of them was Little Odessa, a predominantly Jewish neighbourhood.
A City Hall spokesperson told The New York Post that the map was designed to “highlight neighborhoods in New York City that have substantial foreign‑born populations from regions and countries around the world”.
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