Election campaign bone of contention: Over 150,000 migrants in New York

Migration - Election campaign bone of contention: Over 150,000 migrants in New York

At the end of the year, the US metropolis of New York is looking back on an unprecedented influx of migrants and refugees: more than 150,000 immigrants have arrived in the city on the East Coast over the past year and a half. Some weeks there have been several thousand, and they have come from all over the world.

Now, at the start of winter, the city of eight million inhabitants is threatening to reach the limits of its capacity. Democratic Mayor Eric Adams recently used drastic words: "This issue will destroy New York City."

Adams is primarily alluding to the city's lack of accommodation and financial resources to care for the new arrivals. One of the reasons why New York attracts so many people is the city's legal obligation to provide accommodation for the night to anyone who asks for it. In practice, this has not always worked out for a long time and the law is repeatedly called into question, including by Adams. Almost 70,000 of the migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, who mainly come from South and Central American countries such as Venezuela, have been accommodated by the city council in municipal emergency shelters, where tens of thousands of homeless people were previously housed.

"Let me tell you, New Yorkers, I've never had a problem in my life where I didn't see the end - but I don't see an end here," Adams said weeks ago. Adams calculated that the new arrivals would cost the city, which is considered liberal and open, around twelve billion US dollars (around eleven billion euros) over the course of three years and declared a state of emergency in the fall. Other observers and experts do not see an end to the influx either.

"New families" are changing the cityscape

Most immigrants, including people from Africa and Asia, come by the sometimes very dangerous overland route across the southern border of the USA. From there, many arrive in New York - either by bus, organized by the Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, among others, or independently. It is a political tactic of Republican governors of southern states to bring migrants to Democratic parts of the country. But many migrants also want to come to New York of their own accord - because they have relatives or acquaintances there, or because they know the city from movies and television and hope to find many job opportunities there.

Many of the immigrants, but by no means all, are in the USA illegally. Tens of thousands have already applied for asylum, but processing can take many months. In September, the Democratic government of US President Joe Biden announced that it would grant Venezuelan immigrants work permits more quickly so that they could provide for themselves more quickly - but this has not yet had the desired effect. In New York, many of the immigrants without official permits work in construction, for example. Women and children often sell sweets on the subway. The "new families", as many New Yorkers call them, have visibly changed the cityscape for residents and visitors alike.

A matter of life and death - especially in winter

Especially at the start of the cold season, concerns about the lack of accommodation in the city grow. "The colder the weather gets, the more this becomes a matter of life and death," warned the head of the Coalition for the Homeless to the New York Daily News. "This is going to be bad."

In addition to existing emergency shelters, the city council has converted hotels or set up tent cities in parks and open spaces. Central Park, cruise ships and school gymnasiums have also been considered. In some places, residents are protesting, but overall the new arrivals are largely receiving support. Numerous organizations are collecting donations and helping the immigrants with information and translations.

Many children already attend public schools in the city, with more than a dozen in some classes. "Our school has been given the wonderful opportunity to welcome into our school community families from Central and South America who are seeking asylum in our country," wrote one principal on Manhattan's posh Upper West Side to parents at an elementary school. Spanish-speaking parents helped with the acclimatization process so that some children were able to keep up in English lessons after just a few months.

Mutual recriminations

Mayor Adams initially welcomed the migrants, but is now openly trying to discourage them from traveling to New York. He flew to Mexico, Ecuador and Colombia with appropriate embassies and had flyers distributed at the US border that more or less said: Don't come to New York. In the meantime, he has ordered that homeless migrants with children may only stay in the shelters for 60 days, single adults for 30 days. Then they have to reapply for accommodation - with uncertain success.

Adams and the governor of the state, Kathy Hochul, blame the government of US President Joe Biden for the lack of support. The latter, in turn, questioned the management of the challenge in New York. A crisis meeting in December was unsuccessful. "Help is not on the way," Adams commented afterwards. It plays into the Republicans' hands that the issue is driving wedges between party colleagues.

Illegal immigration is also one of the dominant issues in the election campaign for the 2024 presidential election in the USA. The Republicans, for whom former President Donald Trump is once again running as a candidate, accuse Democratic President Biden of not cracking down hard enough. The Democrats, in turn, accuse the Republicans of blocking legislative initiatives on the issue and not participating constructively in finding solutions.

The example of New York provides the Republicans with ammunition and puts Biden under additional pressure ahead of the election. Although the state of New York, driven primarily by the metropolis of the same name, usually votes reliably for the Democratic presidential candidate, Republican candidates could also prevail on the migration issue at local level and in congressional elections, with consequences for Washington too.