How New York, a City of Immigrants, Became Home to a Migrant Crisis

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

The New Yorker

President, Barack, News, Politics, Wnyc, Obama, Lizza, Washington, Wickenden

4.3 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 20 September 2023

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the past year, more than a hundred thousand migrants have arrived in New York City. This particular chapter in the city’s immigration history began last August, when Governor Greg Abbott of Texas sent buses of Venezuelan asylum seekers north. The city welcomed these new arrivals, who used social media to encourage more migrants to make New York their destination, even as the city’s shelters—already overburdened by a growing homeless population—were at capacity. Eric Lach has recently published a piece in The New Yorker about the new influx of African migrants, and their difficulties navigating a social-services system that was built for Spanish speakers. He joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss the political differences between calling oneself an undocumented immigrant and an asylum seeker, and the demands that Eric Adams is making for federal support.

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Discover Earth's ultimate untamed places with wilderness. With access to 6 million acres of private land
0:07.7	in eight African countries, wilderness offers intimate wildlife encounters and experiences that will
0:13.0	leave you changed forever. The accommodations are luxurious and stay true to the vibrant soul
0:19.8	and spirit of each destination and the trips are
0:23.0	meticulously planned from arrival to departure, making them perfect for a group, family or
0:28.5	solo travellers. Wilderness is among the leaders of conservation hospitality, with more than 60
0:34.5	of the most highly awarded lodges in camps in Africa.
0:43.0	Wilderness is especially excited this year to focus on wellness, providing experiences that immerse you in beautiful places to restore your sense of self through nature.
0:48.1	To learn more and book your own wilderness adventure, go to wilderness destinations.com
0:52.9	slash women who travel.
0:55.7	eBay, it's a place to fall in love with new pre-loved vintage and rare fashion over and over
1:01.6	again. Your favorite designers, expertly authenticated. Yeah, eBay. Things people love.
1:10.7	So over 100,000 migrants have arrived in New York City since last summer. That might
1:15.7	sound like a lot, but it's not actually a historically large number for the city.
1:20.9	So what makes this a crisis?
1:23.8	You know, it's like a crisis of the response, basically. You know, it's not a crisis of numbers, but it's a crisis of like, what are we going to do in New York from government officials?
1:34.6	It's a political crisis.
1:36.2	You know, you've got sort of the city trying to figure out what its relationship is with these 100,000 people who've shown up and asked for services in the last year, year and a half.
1:48.8	That's Eric Latch, one of the writers I edit at The New Yorker.
1:52.7	He's just written a piece about the state of the migrant crisis in New York City.
1:57.4	We're seeing asylum seekers arrive from all over the world, not just Latin America, but from countries throughout Africa, and they are facing unique challenges trying to access social services.
2:08.5	Many new arrivals are ending up in homeless shelters that were already at capacity, or they're sleeping on the street.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The New Yorker, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The New Yorker and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.