IMMIGRATIONWhy New York Is Experiencing a Migrant Crisis
The city of New York typically receives tens of thousands of new arrivals each year. But since spring 2022, numbers have been rising especially quickly. More than 118,000 migrants and asylum seekers, most of whom hail from countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, have arrived after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. The arrival of more than one hundred thousand migrants and asylum seekers in New York City and other major U.S. cities over the past year has sparked renewed debate over U.S. immigration policy.
What’s the Scale of the Current Migrant Crisis in New York City?
The city typically receives tens of thousands of new arrivals each year. But since spring 2022, numbers have been rising especially quickly. More than 118,000 migrants and asylum seekers, most of whom hail from countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, have arrived after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
The influx of migrants is not unusual by historical standards; between 2010 and 2019, the city added nearly half a million foreign migrants [PDF] to its population. But the most recent surge has still strained city services. Today’s migrants are arriving with few resources and have had to rely on the city’s shelter system to a degree not seen in the past. As of September, nearly sixty thousand newly arrived migrants were living in the city’s shelters; about two-thirds of them families with children. Their sheer numbers have placed enormous fiscal pressure on New York City, costing it over $1 billion so far, and prompted officials to declare a state of emergency. Some estimates say the cost of housing could surpass $4.3 billion by July 2024; while this is a significant amount, it would account for less than 5 percent of New York’s budget in fiscal year 2022.
Legal services for asylum seekers are also stretched thin. Anyone applying for asylum must wait a minimum of six months before receiving a work permit. Many recently arrived migrants are unable to find a lawyer to help them start the asylum application process, or are already undergoing the process but unable to work legally. Cities including Chicago, El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, have also seen an increase in their migrant populations, though not to the scale of New York City.
