Only 2000 migrants were able to find work in New York - thousands more remain unemployed

Just over 2000 migrants in New York got jobs. Thousands more displaced people are crowding local shelters. The city is having trouble implementing a plan to end the ongoing crisis by employing immigrants, reports New York Post.

Only about half of the 9000 migrants, who have been contacted since last October by the highly publicized Workforce1 program in New York City, have responded to an attempt to connect them with employers.

And most of the roughly 5500 migrants contacted by department agents were unable to find work. Only 2000 people found employment.

Poor result

These figures provide a first glimpse into City Hall's very slow efforts to find jobs for asylum seekers. Mayor Eric Adams and his team say this is the only way to reduce the number migrants, under the care of the city.

These figures hardly affect the 65 migrants under the city's care. 000 of them are of working age, which stimulates council members to act.

Bureaucratic confusion

The meager numbers of migrant workers don't tell the whole story, says Lorena Lucero, chief policy adviser at the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA). She accused the city of failing to track the results of a confusing, disparate work of migrant services.

On the subject: City programs that help immigrants find work in New York

According to the Department of the Interior, the city has funded 50 nonprofit organizations that help provide job placement services to migrants. A fragmented system of migrant resources makes it difficult for the city to know how many migrants have the proper training, work authorization and help finding work.

The system does not account for the many asylum seekers who have turned to illegal income in the underground economy that has emerged during the crisis.

“It’s a little strange to me,” Upper West Side Democratic councilwoman Gail Brewer said of the lack of data.

For its part, the city advertised its local Asylum Claims Help Center. It opened last summer and has since expanded to 85 locations and has helped more than 50 people apply for some form of asylum or work permit.

But the results of this program are also hidden because the federal government does not share the results of applications with the city for privacy reasons.

Help center director Masha Gindler said rough estimates based on anecdotal evidence put between 5000 and 10 projects completed.

“I think we already have experience. The question is whether we offer resources and scale them accordingly,” said Councilwoman Alexa Aviles.

The agency expects the number of foreign-born clients to increase by 5% over the next year, from 20% to 25%.

These migrants could fill labor gaps in New York's food service, construction and health care sectors, city officials say.

Temporary protection status

The officials, among other things, called on President Joe Biden to expand a program that grants Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to asylum seekers from countries facing political turmoil or violence. This will speed up the process of obtaining work permits.

Last year, the White House granted temporary protected status to Venezuelan migrants, but only if they entered the country before the end of last summer.

New York, as part of a coalition of 200 US cities, has asked the White House to grant temporary protected status to migrants fleeing Ecuador, Mali and Mauritania.

“By ensuring that people with TPS status have access to employment opportunities in the formal economy, we can significantly contribute to their integration into our society as a whole,” Lucero concluded.