Welcome to the Edwing D'Angelo Foundation
Immigrants
The Migrant Crisis
New York City has long been a magnet for new Americans. More than a third of its residents — over three million people — are immigrants. Before the pandemic interrupted migration patterns, the census tallied about 60,000 foreign-born people annually in the city who had been living abroad a year earlier.
What’s different about the 116,000 migrants who started arriving last year is how many came at once, and how many went straight into the city’s homeless shelter system, already near capacity.
In normal times, immigrants gravitate to neighborhoods where countrymen have set up social networks, and they are gradually absorbed into the city. The new group came in a rush, after the pandemic worsened violence and poverty in struggling countries. Many came with no communities to join. In the shelters, they are creating them from scratch.
The above is a segment grabbed from a New York Times article which clearly depicts the reality of the new wave of immigrants in New York City.
While the article does a good job of highlighting the issue, it could benefit from offering potential solutions to the migrant crisis. Providing information about what is being done to help these migrants, and what readers can do to support them, could encourage more people to take action and make a difference. The thoughts that run through my head when I read the article.
However, I come from the school of thought that re-litigating a problem is not a solution. I rather troubleshoot the problem to come up with a viable and a sustainable solution.
The Issues At Hand
- Too many migrants more than what the city can handle.
- The city is doing everything it can to discourage other migrants to come to the city.
- What to do with the ones that are already here in terms of housing, employment, rising crime and violence.
While there is no one magic bullet to this mega issues, I believe New Yorkers, like myself ought to step up and assist as much as we can do from saving our city into complete chaos and lawlessness. To look the other can be very well mean that a lot these folks would end up in the pipeline of mass incarceration complex.
From my advantage point, fashion is always my first line of defense. The New York City fashion industry has historically been the ushering into work and society for many generations before us. Employment in fashion created wealth and for many generations was their first great shot into the American dream. Today their children’s children are America’s doctors, lawyers, judges, professors, nurses, politicians and the list goes on and on. I strongly believe that this new wave of immigrants would be no different.
According to Women’s Wear Daily, the average senior seamstress and tailor in New York City are fast approaching retirement age. This means that in a few years from now what remains of fashion may vanish altogether because there are not highly skilled operators to work on samples and/or the small productions that are still being produced in a vital industrial sector for the city economy.
Objective: To utilize some of the new wave of immigrants to skillfully train them to be the next generation of New York City tailors and seamstresses. By definition, they are younger, a lot of them have some education and they are eager to integrate themselves as productive members of our NYC community.
WIN WIN Strategy: This vocational program has the potential to alleviate more than its intended goals. Not only people who acquire new skills are less likely to break the law, but they are also more likely to become model and abiding law citizens looking forward to integrate themselves into the community which has welcomed them. This is a major preventive measure and/or deterrent for the incarceration piping system.
The fashion industry can acquire and expand its labor force with a more youthful and newly mint trained operators giving a breadth of fresh air and skills – keeping the industry healthy and thriving.
A gainfully employed immigrant community can replicate positive effects throught its community itself – using one as a role model for others.
Less dependency on government assistance.
How Can We Make This Happened
The Edwing D’Angelo Foundation is ready and capable of providing the necessary training from 500 to 1000 immigrants.
Along with our partner, A Little of Piece Light, can also provide vocational skills in different fields such as plumbing, construction, etc. We will partner with other organizations to fullfil the need of the trainees.