Sometimes the best way to understand why something is going wrong is to look at whatā€™s going right. The asylum seekers from the border arenā€™t the only outsiders in town. Russiaā€™s 2022 invasion of Ukraine brought a separate influx of displaced people into U.S. cities that quietly assimilated most of them. ā€œWe have at least 30,000 Ukrainian refugees in the city of Chicago, and no one has even noticed,ā€ Johnson told me in a recent interview.

According to New York officials, of about 30,000 Ukrainians who resettled there, very few ended up in shelters. By contrast, the city has scrambled to open nearly 200 emergency shelters to house asylees from the southwest border.

What ensured the quiet assimilation of displaced Ukrainians? Why has the arrival of asylum seekers from Latin America been so different? And why have some cities managed to weather the so-called crisis without any outcry or political backlash? In interviews with mayors, other municipal officials, nonprofit leaders, and immigration lawyers in several states, I pieced together an answer stemming from two major differences in federal policy. First, the Biden administration admitted the Ukrainians under terms that allowed them to work right away. Second, the feds had a plan for where to place these newcomers. It included coordination with local governments, individual sponsors, and civil-society groups. The Biden administration did not leave Ukrainian newcomers vulnerable to the whims of Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who since April 2022 has transported 37,800 migrants to New York City, 31,400 to Chicago, and thousands more to other blue citiesā€”in a successful bid to push the immigration debate rightward and advance the idea that immigrants are a burden on native-born people.

To call this moment a ā€œmigrant crisisā€ is to let elected federal officials off the hook. But a ā€œcrisis of politicians kicking the problem down the road until opportunists set it on fireā€ is hard to fit into a tweet, so weā€™ll have to make do.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20240222123138/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/02/asylum-seekers-migrant-crisis/677464/

  • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    They should, but weā€™re also talking tens of thousands of immigrants per state. Work doesnā€™t magically appear because theyā€™re all given permission to work.

    • ghostdoggtv@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Pay them to take care of other immigrants. Tax them on what you pay them.

      Itā€™s not that thereā€™s no work, itā€™s that being a cunt to poor immigrants is easier than governing

      • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Not saying itā€™s a bad idea but I donā€™t think the money is there. Cities are straight up prepping to evict migrants, that strongly implies theyā€™ll be fending for themselves. They need federal aid and the House wonā€™t approve that.

        • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.worldOP
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          7 months ago

          fending for themselves.

          Without the ability to seek legal tax paying work. We complain about how much these people are costing us while forbidding them to take care of themselves, itā€™s insane and insanely frustrating.

    • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.worldOP
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      7 months ago

      Yeah, it appears when they have paychecks and want to buy food and clothes and live in well maintained apartments and etc.

      • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Unemployment rate doesnā€™t really indicate how many jobs are unfilled. They (Texas and Florida) also didnā€™t ship immigrants evenly across the state.