By Mariel S. Clark
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Immigrant New Yorkers now make up roughly half of the city's doctors, surgeons and nurses, a new report by the state comptroller revealed Wednesday.
The study by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, which showed immigrants are critical to New York City's economic growth, also found that 74 percent of New York's chefs and head cooks were born overseas.
Foreign-born workers made up nearly half of the city's workforce in 2008 and accounted for $215 billion, almost a third, of the city's gross product that year, according to the report (PDF).
“New York City remains a beacon of hope and opportunity for immigrants from every nation,” DiNapoli said in the report.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg agreed with DiNapoli's sentiments during his inauguration on Jan. 1 where he called for immigration reform that "honors our history, upholds our values, and promotes our economy."
“No city on earth — no city — should hold these principles higher aloft than this city of immigrants, because no city on earth has been more rewarded by immigrant labor, more renewed by immigrant ideas, more revitalized by immigrant culture, than the City of New York," Bloomberg said.
Foreign-born residents accounted for more than half of all homeowners in 2008, the report said.
Foreign-born residents also played a crucial role in Manhattan's workforce, especially in neighborhoods with large immigrant populations such as Washington Heights and Inwood, where 51 percent of residents are foreign born and the Lower East Side, Morningside Heights and Hamilton Heights where immigrants make up more than a third of the population.
