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An aid group, mainly, for African immigrants
By Henry Fernandez
Planes, buses and blistered feet. Those modes of transit brought two dozen West African immigrants to the United States and, then, one June day to Afrikana, a Harlem nonprofit that helps immigrants build their American lives.
Afrikana’s waiting room is where Sweet Mama’s Soul Food used to be. Those looking for help exit Sweet Mama’s and walk next door to sit down in front of one of Afrikana’s volunteer intake workers. In addition to processing applications for discounted MetroCards and IDNYC cards that double as a library card and legal identification, volunteers do whatever is necessary.
“We’re janitors, we’re therapists, scientists, math teachers. We are whatever you need us to be,” said Adama Bah, executive director of Afrikana.
As morning became afternoon, the restaurant-turned-waiting room next door was so full that several people were lingering outside, prompting a neighborhood resident to ask, “What’s going on over here?”
The former restaurant full of those in need represents the depth of New York City’s migration crisis. Immigrants facing economic strife in America often need to wait at least 150 days to work legally. Most immigrants are only granted a month or two in city shelters.
“They come here, they go to the mosque, they go wherever they are welcome,” Bah said, explaining that many immigrants must rely on the kindness of strangers.
It’s a way of making do that mirrors Afrikana’s own efforts, which rely heavily on volunteers . “The city didn’t give us any funding for this despite us bearing the brunt of so many people,” said Bah, whose organization also helps immigrants from non-African nations.. “You just have to help. People who’ve been doing this [since] 30 years ago are still in this because they genuinely love their community … That’s what you have here.”
Juggling administrative tasks
On that day’s ride to pick up her children from school, Bah weaved in and out of traffic on Harlem River Drive. As she steered her car toward home, she took call after call about immigrants in need of everything from jobs to legal assistance to everyday hygiene products. “I keep [sanitary] pads in my car in case women need them,” Bah said. “You’ll be shocked how many are living in the streets. You just need to open your eyes.”
Sometimes, immigrants take on whatever paying jobs that are available to them, Bah said.
“If it’s sex work, they’ll do it,” she said. “Whatever ways they can feed themselves. They’re picking up bottles, they’re working in construction sites. In places you won’t be, they’ll be there.”
Working off-the-books
On West 116th Street, young men, some adorned in traditional West African garb and others in graphic tees and jeans, or some combination of the two sat on apartment stoops and busy sidewalks in what some call “Little Senegal.”
Some sell apparel like athleisure wear, counterfeit luxury sunglasses and sneakers. As they conversed in French, Arabic and Wolof, other salesmen handed plastic bags to customers as they browsed bins of fruits and vegetables under makeshift tents
The United Nations International Labor Organization defines their commerce, which no government agency regulates or taxes, as part of an informal economy: “ “It thrives,” U.N. analysts wrote, “mostly in a context of high unemployment, underemployment, poverty, gender inequality and precarious work.”
One man involved in this informal economy is Lamine Seck. Born in Senegal, he crossed the U.S.-Mexico border last October, eventually arriving in New York City. He said he works as a bartender at a restaurant in Times Square where he is paid under-the-table, without the required taxes being taken out. Immigrants without work permits frequently earn a living that way, whether in restaurants, on construction jobs or elsewhere.
As Seck walked down the block, he passed a cluster of young men speaking in French. Bright red Doordash bags were tied to their traditional bikes and E-bikes. Delivery apps have been a popular way for immigrants to earn income without work permits. Some utilize the apps under fake identities.
“I’m looking for work right now. I’ve been here seven months. I speak five languages. I’m trying to get a worker’s permit, but there’s some issue with the judge … ” he said. “I’m working in the dark right now. Without papers.”
“The fact that Black [immigrants] have to be dependent upon a shadow economy is a result of anti-blackness,” said Nana Gyamfi, executive director of Black Alliance for Just Immigration.
Gyamfi said race plays a heavy role in the treatment of asylum-seekers in the city. She contrasted the treatment of African asylum seekers to the treatment of Ukrainian asylum seekers who fled from Russia’s invasion.
Different immigrants, different treatment
“One of the benefits that Ukrainians got was that they were able to get work permits,” she said. “They didn’t have to wait six months …When you come here as an African asylum seeker, your countries are not afforded that kind of privilege, so you’ve gotta wait for a work permit.”
She continued: “In the shadow economy, just as in the above-ground economy, it is racialized. Roles are racialized, positions are racialized. If someone says janitor, people have a certain person that comes to their mind. Domestic worker? People have a certain image that comes to their mind … For African asylum seekers, what we find is that those jobs [they take] are the most arduous. ”
Murad Awawdeh, president and chief executive officer of the New York Immigration Coalition, explained the economic and housing struggles of many African immigrants.
“What we’re seeing right now with African migrants who are being kicked out of the shelter system is that they’re either ending up on the street or a mosque until they’re able to save enough money to get their own apartment or share a room,” said Awawdeh, adding that the federal government should do more to solve such issues
“We need them,” she said, “to actually pass comprehensive immigration reform, to actually give people a pathway to citizenship.”
For Bah, the solution starts in local communities.
“The first part of doing this work is welcoming immigrants into your community in a proper way, not saying, ‘Good luck, you’re an immigrant; figure it out.’”