by Ziyi Xu

On a cold Thursday morning last month, several people walked through a glass door near Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights. Above the door was a giant yellow sign that read: NICE, New Immigrant Community Empowerment. Inside, there were about 20 white plastic chairs lined up by the window wall. Two-thirds of the seats had been taken, and the rest were soon filled. Two tables had been set up where three people from the workforce development team provided job information to people looking for help. With the tables and the chairs, there was barely any room left.

On one side of the wall was a whiteboard with posters of job fairs, jacket donations, and a list of where to look for work online, written in Spanish. On the other side of the room was a blackboard with seven construction helmets hanging at the top and a November calendar below. Every Monday to Friday, from 7 a.m. to 12 p.m., is “Busqueda de empleo” or job search. There are also other events such as “Clinica robo de Salario” and “Orientación a la nueva membresía”, which are Salary Theft Clinic and orientation for new members.

“This is a slow day for us. Sometimes we would be so packed that people have to wait outside,” said Jose Payares, coordinator of workforce development at NICE. “It’s been like this for months.”

Since early 2022, thousands of migrants have arrived in New York City through the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan. Many of them are Venezuelans escaping the country’s economy collapse and political turmoil. The city estimated that 30,300 asylum seekers arrived in the city in recent months.

New York City will spend at least $600 million to provide shelter and schooling for the new migrants. Mayor Eric Adams also called for additional state and federal aid. The hope is that, in the long run, the new influx of asylum seekers can strengthen the city.

“If you look at immigration trends in this country, I think the number is we’re about 2 million immigrants behind what we would have been without the COVID disruption,” said Chad Sparber, an economics professor at Colgate University. “So that is a lot of workers, potential workers that this economy could have. But we’re missing. At the same time, you hear all kinds of stories about labor shortages.”

Professor Sparber lives in Central New York, and his child’s school was cancelled in mid-December because there weren’t enough school bus drivers. He had also observed restaurants closed due to the lack of employees.

Many migrants came to this country to look for job and to send money back to their families. They could be the key to solve the lack of labor in this country.

To relieve the pressure on the shelter system, the city has opened up many emergency shelters and many hotels have been used for shelters as well. Nonprofit organizations and churches also provide free meals and offer clothes donations to migrants. After the basic needs have been satisfied, many migrants still face one big challenge—looking for jobs.

“In Venezuela, I made four dollars a month…but a bag of flour that you use to make Arepa. It’s for breakfast and dinner…it costs a dollar and fifty cents,” said Junior Manuel Vazquez in Spanish as he painted the wall in St. Paul & St. Andrew United Methodist Church on the Upper West Side.

Vazquez arrived in New York City four months ago on his own. He traveled on foot for a month across South and Central America before reaching the U.S.-Mexico border and later being bused to Manhattan. He now lives in the church with four other Venezuela migrants who went through the same journey as he did.

The church provides food and bed, but Vazquez is in need of finding a job because he wants to send money to his three young children back in Venezuela.

Vazquez is an experienced construction worker who has been in this industry since he was 14 years-old. To return the favor of the church, he decided to put his skills to work. With two trowels and a bucket of plaster, he has been coating the church walls for days.

“I want to make it look pretty…I’ll keep doing it as long as there’s materials.” Vazquez shrugged and applied another layer of plaster on the wall.

Vazquez has consulted a lawyer through the church and is in the process to obtain a work permit. In the meanwhile, he’s also looking for organizations that could provide free Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) training.

In 2017, New York City passed Local Law 196, requiring construction and demolition workers at most worksites to have 40 hours of Site Safety Training (SST) and an SST Worker card. This law was made to decrease the injury and fatality rate at construction sites, but it has also increased the price of OSHA training to be eligible to work on a construction site and the time investment.

A 40-hour OSHA training course could cost $600. It’s an amount of money that many migrants cannot afford. Since there is a demand for OSHA training among migrant groups, organizations throughout the five boroughs have started providing free Spanish OSHA training programs for migrants.

La Colmena is a nonprofit organization based in Staten Island that supports immigrant workers and their families. They offer free Spanish OSHA training sessions twice a month. Usually, it would take two Saturdays and two Sundays to finish a session, and for each session, there’s about 30 people. The training is open to everyone, and there are people commuting from Manhattan or Brooklyn to join the class.

This year, La Colmena opened seven OSHA classes just for asylum seekers and they are 5-day, full time class. It collaborates with Action OSH, a training organization, and they set the class close to the Staten Island port so it’s only a 10-minute walk from the ferry to the classroom.

On Dec. 2, a group of students were on their third day of the intense OSHA training. There were 6 female students, 10 male students, and a kid sitting on the side, watching YouTube videos. Each of them was given a printed OSHA training textbook. Students constantly raised their hands to ask questions and shared their discovery of the differences between working in the U.S. and working back home. Some had a notebook with them to write down what they found important. Everyone paid attention to the class and participated either verbally or with a nod.

However, the supply of free training could not keep up with the demand. At La Colmena, there is a waitlist of 300 people, and the classes are full till next June.

“Sometimes people called and asked how long it could take, but I can’t give them a specific date because there are too many people,” said Jason Jimenez, site safety training associate at La Colmena.

New Immigrant Community Empowerment is also facing a similar problem.

“We have a long waitlist. Some might not want to wait for that long so they would go look elsewhere,” said Geoffrey Shamah, support services associate at NICE.

Besides construction work, many migrants also look for jobs at restaurants and delis.

Alejandro is a 22-year-old Venezuelan who arrived in the city two months ago. He has been waking up at 6 in the morning to go out and look for jobs. He usually traveled to the Bronx, where there is a large Latino community, and asked for a job at the restaurants or convenience stores, but many rejected him because Alejandro didn’t have the work permit or they’re not hiring.

If a migrant decides to file an asylum application, they need to wait at least 180 days to receive an Employment Authorization Document (EAD). However, with the backlog at the immigration courts in New York State, the waiting period could be much longer. This leads to at least a six-month period where asylum seekers could not work legally. To some migrants, working off the books might be a risk they’re willing to take; for others, they would prefer to keep their record clean.

Anthony Guzman arrived in the city four months ago, and he’s waiting for his work permit. In the meantime he’s busy learning English and familiarizing himself with the city. Guzman used to study business in Venezuela before he had to drop off because he could no longer afford going to school. He later joined the military just to make a living, but he hoped that one day he could return to college.

However, continuing his education is a distant dream for Guzman. His main goal is to make money and to find a job.

“We don’t pick on the type of job. We do whatever comes our way. If I have to learn something, I’ll learn it,” said Guzman.