Managing the Migrant Crisis in New York: Challenges and Solutions

Soccer session, at Cadman Plaza, Brooklyn, March 25. “The authorities are overwhelmed and the Republicans are demonizing the refugees for electoral purposes,” explains Allison Urquidi, who plays with them, most of them Guineans, every week. Credit: Stephan Falke/Laif-Réa for Challenges

Throughout meetings, Donald Trump rails against “Biden’s migrants, thieves, rapists and criminals”. So much so that immigration is now the main concern of Americans, with 72% considering it “a serious problem”, compared to 52% five years ago.

Happy to play, in the meantime, they dream, of “one day becoming a professional”, Nabi, Ibrahim, Abdoulaye and the others talk about their new life, the refuge, the discovery of snow, the obligatory English lessons, but also the journey that brought them here. They left alone, traveling by plane, bus and zodiac from Conakry to El Paso in Texaspassing through Istanbul, El Salvador and Managua.

For a few thousand dollars raised through a family tontine, they took the new migrant route. It was opened by “coyotes”, networks of traffickers who since the end of 2021 have carried out Nicaragua – which no longer requires entry visas – their hub.

And this is how migrants from all over the world arrived in New York, fleeing authoritarian regimes, cartel violence or simply poverty. Three other reasons ultimately explain this massive flow. Sanitary first, with a large draft of air caused by the end of the pandemic and amplified by social networks.

Then legal – a case law from the 1980s obliging the city to provide shelter to the homeless. Finally, politics. Republican governors, notably the very radical Texan Greg Abbottwanted to strike people’s minds by “distributing the load” : they chartered hundreds of migrant buses heading to the major Democratic strongholds, Chicago, Boston and especially New York. Its mayor, Eric Adams, cries out to helplessness: “We should not find ourselves alone in the face of a crisis of national proportions. » So serious, he warned last September, that it could “destroy New York”.

The municipality has already spent $2 billion to open more than 200 shelters, welcome, care for, feed and house these men, women and children, distributing them in shelters, schools, gymnasiums and hotels. In Midtown, the Roosevelt and the Row are reserved for families. There are also these gigantic « tent cities » (tent cities) hastily set up to accommodate 2,000 people, such as southeast of Brooklyn, on the former Floyd Bennett Field airfield, where the skyscrapers of Manhattan loom far on the horizon.

29 February, Joe Biden and Donald Trump were campaigning in Texas, about 300 miles apart, to talk about immigration. The Republican called for “massive deportations”. The Democrat promised a much tougher law “if Congress stops blocking it and passes it.”

New York, too, has adopted a more restrictive approach. Since October, refugees’ stay in accommodation has been limited to 30 days for singles, 60 for families, after which they must make do or reapply. And so on March 28, in front of St. Brigid Church in the East Village, a few dozen people were waiting to be rehoused.

In the adjoining Tompkins Square park, volunteers organized distributions of clothes and hot soup. “With the cold, a real movement of solidarity was born,” says Niobe Way, local resident and professor at New York University. No one forgets that the neighborhood has seen generations of migrants settle there. » Between 1892 and 1954, 12 million people passed through Ellis Island.

Migrants awaiting rehousing in Tompkins Square Park on February 22. Since October, the stay of refugees in accommodation has been limited to 30 days for singles. Afterwards, you have to make do or reapply. Credit: Sopa Images/SPUS/Abaca

“Even today, 37% of New Yorkers are born abroad,” recalls Andrew Sandoval-Strausz, author of America Neighborhood, an essay on the contributions of Latino immigration. For the historian, “if there is indeed a crisis in New York, it is that the city is cruelly lacking in migrants! With 3.7% unemployment, it faces giant shortages in health, construction and catering! » 70,000 positions for nurses and caregivers are to be filled. Even the municipality has 8% vacant jobs.

“Let them work,” implores Eric Adams, so that the Biden administration makes it easier to grant permits. Enough to give prospects to young Brooklyn footballers, who, if they don’t break through in football, will “perhaps become businessmen”. Allison Urquidi aspires to set up a foundation. “To offer newcomers a little humanity. »