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New York City is home to the largest Russian and Russian-speaking population in the Western Hemisphere. The largest Russian-American communities in New York City are located in Brighton Beach and Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn. Brighton Beach has been nicknamed Little Odessa due to its population of Russian-speaking immigrants from Ukraine and Russia.
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History
The first wave of immigrants to the United States from Russia arrived during the 1800s. The current wave of Russian immigrants, largely Russian Jews, began during the 1970s and increased along with Russian Christians and other ethnic Russians who immigrated to the United States after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, with the largest number going to the New York metropolitan area.
Demographics
The New York Tri-State area has a population of 1.6 million Russian-Americans and 600,000 of them live in New York City. There are over 220,000 Russian-speaking Jews living in New York City. Approximately 100,000 Russian Americans in the New York metropolitan area were born in Russia.
New York City also has a large population of immigrants born in Central Asia, Ukraine, Belarus, and other ex-Soviet states. Most of the Central Asian immigrants are from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, and due to their Soviet influence, most of them speak Russian.
The New York metropolitan area continues to be by far the leading metropolitan gateway for Russian immigrants legally admitted into the United States. In 2013, 1,974 individuals legally immigrated to the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA core based statistical area from Russia alone, not including immigrants from other previous Soviet bloc countries; in 2012, this number was 2,286; 1,435 in 2011; and 1,283 in 2010. These numbers do not include the remainder of the New York-Newark-Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area. Brighton Beach, Brooklyn continues to be the most important demographic and cultural center for the Russian American experience. However, as Russian Americans have climbed in socioeconomic status, the diaspora from Russia and other former Soviet-bloc states has moved toward more affluent parts of the New York metropolitan area, notably Bergen County, New Jersey. Within Bergen County, the increasing size of the Russian immigrant presence in its hub of Fair Lawn prompted a 2014 April Fool's satire titled, "Putin Moves Against Fair Lawn".
Politics
Russians generally back the Republican Party.