Migrants from Africa, Asia, Europe and regions outside of Latin America now make up nearly half of the new arrivals to New York City, reflecting a sharp departure from traditional migration patterns, according to an analysis of immigration court data by Gothamist.
Central and South American migrants, as recently as three years ago, comprised the vast majority of the cases in immigration courts in New York City. But that majority has eroded, as more migrants flock to the United States and New York City from across the globe.
The changes in New York City reflect the growing diversity of migrants crossing the U.S-Mexico border, as political and economic pressures intensify in different parts of the globe, and as word spreads that more asylum-seekers are being granted entry, immigration experts told Gothamist.
“This is the fundamental change in the profile of migrants arriving at the border,” said Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute and director of the institute’s office at New York University School of Law. “You’re just seeing the downstream of a phenomenon that’s been unfolding at the border in the last two years.”
Some of New York City’s largest and fastest-growing groups of new arrivals — including from China, India and Uzbekistan — are mostly making their way to the city on their own, and avoiding the city’s strained shelter network, according to immigration aid workers and experts studying immigration trends.
“All of the attention is on the migrants who are in the shelters,” Chishti added. “But the more natural flow of people into New York is happening at the same time. The old route of people getting to New York organically, getting integrated through their village networks is still happening.”
The data on immigration court filings was obtained by the Syracuse University group through federal Freedom of Information Act requests and analyzed by Gothamist. The records offer one of the most comprehensive…
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