The numbers are in: The arrival of migrants in New York has not, in fact, reduced the availability of jobs for black and Hispanic New Yorkers, according to a study released last week by the Center for NYC Affairs at the New School, which noted that employment for these populations has continued to grow and reached record highs as the city has welcomed tens of thousands of migrants.
New York has, of course, been the nation’s center of immigration and the benefits that flow from it for generations, a legacy that most New Yorkers point to with pride, but that symbiosis is once again being called into question by Donald Trump and J.D. Vance’s insistence that immigration is somehow a threat to black employment, or as Trump has repeatedly put it, “black jobs.”
This is not new. The idea of immigrants taking people’s jobs has been around since one group of immigrants felt settled and began to worry that the next one would pose a threat to its viability. English and German Americans considered IrishThe Italian and Jewish newcomers were suspicious; the latter came to view the Chinese immigrants unfavorably, and all of those mentioned above were wary of the Mexican arrivals.
Each group was extremely concerned about their positions being displaced, and political opportunists never hesitated to push the divide further to achieve their ends. From the Know-Nothings of the 19th century to Trump, attacks on immigrants have always had a certain currency in the political sphere, with fear of economic decline always ready to fuel these attacks.
These opportunists hope that people will not think too deeply about how the economy and employment dynamics actually work. Jobs are not just a limited pool that workers can whittle down until there are none left; jobs create more jobs, and immigrants are often the ones who grow the economy in ways that benefit everyone.
In a reverse scenario, if immigrants simply stopped arriving and New York’s population collapsed, we can guarantee that this would not magically leave more jobs open for the Black and other communities of color that remained. It would undermine our economic vitality and ultimately make every community worse off.
There are, of course, real problems with the city’s employment landscape and the status of black and other disadvantaged workers, including persistently lower wages and higher unemployment than their white counterparts, but immigrants are certainly not the problem here.
Attacking asylum seekers who arrive with nothing but the hope that this city offers as many opportunities as they have been led to believe in popular culture is counterproductive and distracts from policies and initiatives that could actually help the city’s black workforce — things like supporting workplaces that want to unionize and better cracking down on wage theft.
Not to mention that these groups are not segregated at all. While many people still think of migrants as Latinos from South and Central America, for months now a huge percentage of the migrants arriving have been black migrants from West Africa and elsewhere, underscoring the absurdity of pitting them against black New Yorkers. With the right support, these people can establish themselves as a new generation of New Yorkers who will keep our economy going.
