The Immigrant Melting Pot of Queens, NY
Many immigrant communities in Queens face language barriers that prevent access to formal services. As a result, these populations adapt their emigrant practices within the framework of rules and regulations specific to New York City. Through the breaking, bending, re-interpreting, and appropriating of these rules, an informal architecture typology emerges. For our research, we observed the flow of money through different financial services, sidewalk vendors and businesses and how signage and language play a role in their accessibility. In this drawing, you see how all these typologies come together in the streets of Queens.
Signage…
This drawing shows how signage in these immigrant communities not only breaks some of the rules set forth by the DOB but is also used to take advantage of such people by presenting misleading information. The translation between languages can lead to wrongful interpretations that impact the economic success and social integration of many of these immigrants
Banks…
Most of the immigrant population in Queens does not have access to traditional banking methods, whether it's because of their legal status or language barriers. As a result, these communities have found ways to work around the system and create what could be considered anti-typologies of commercial banks. Some of these anti-typologies can be seen in mixed use commercial spaces that have combined retail and tax/remittance services. Others resort to saving their earnings in their own apartments because of the lack of access or distrust to banks.
Snakes and Ladders!
The Struggles of Upward Mobility
We thought an interesting and playful way to visualize how these topics interconnect could be through an adaptation of the game Snakes and Ladders. In the Snakes and Ladders: Queen’s Immigrant Edition, the immigrants’ goal is to be able to access traditional banking methods and utilize the informal banking services. The journey starts in the apartment bedroom, where the immigrant is saving money to be able to send abroad to her family. It ends at the traditional retail bank. The drawing presents a gradient that shows the accessibility in terms of language and formality of services on both banks and street vendors. The ladders represent the services that are immediately available to the immigrants and the snakes represent the setbacks.
