Peruvians in Paterson

Abstract

Paterson, New Jersey, America’s first planned industrial city, has long been an economic haven for many immigrant ethnic groups. Today, the city provides a unique environment to study a high concentration of Peruvian immigrants in a relatively small city. Analysis of the growth of Peruvian religious, cultural, and political organizations within the city shows that they have created an effective support structure for themselves in Paterson along the same lines as past immigrant groups. A combined analysis of data from recent sources provide a reasonable estimate of the current size of the Peruvian population in the United States that is much larger than the official U.S. census count. In this study, the Peruvian experience in Paterson is analyzed within the overall immigrant history of the city, and the nature of the economic, political, and social activity of Peruvians in the city is explored.