Why aren’t you at school at this time? A passenger asks a young Hispanic man, perhaps 10 years old, inside the 1 train, between Times Square and Penn Station of the New York City Subway. It was a day of the week. During class hours. Instead of occupying a desk, the boy offered chocolates and other sweets for sale, walking from car to car.
“It’s not your problem!” he shouted to the passenger, the mother of the child who was in the same car, carrying another box of candy. She also a baby behind her back.
This scene of children trading products on the subway, during school hours, has multiplied in the Big Apple, specifically since the immigration crisis detonated in the spring of 2022.
Only now, two years after the faces of minors appear on an increasing basis, selling products to passengers, New York City has proposed to address this problem. Starting this week, an information campaign will be expanded through various media.
As confirmed by several municipal sources, leaflets will begin to be distributed to discourage immigrant families from letting their children sell merchandise on the streets and in the transportation system.
The Department of Homeless Services (DHS), the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) will share information where it is specified that the sale in public spaces, without a license, It is illegal. And it can result in fines. Additionally, they will post posters inside shelters that house immigrant families.
This information “booklet” will be distributed from the moment migrants begin to be processed in the municipal shelter system.
The information resource in multiple languages, including indigenous South American languages, will also provide contact information on school access, child care, and worker and immigrant rights.
“Health and safety, especially that of children, are always the top priorities of our administration, so we are expanding the scope to ensure that all immigrant parents know the support available for their children,” said a municipal spokesperson.
In the coming days, outreach work will be intensified, both at migrant shelters and at Subway, to ensure that children are enrolled in schools and that parents are aware of after-school child care programs.
No punishment, only prevention
Earlier this year, New York City established a working group to create best practices that do not involve punishment or sanctions with the group of migrants they have encountered in street sales, accompanied by their babies or children of legal age. school, a sole means of survival.
In this case, it has been proven that they are completely unaware that they are violating two rules: the obligation for children under 16 years of age to be registered and attend schools. And that it is prohibited, subject to fines, to sell merchandise in the Subway system.
“It is part of one of the many challenges that with compassion and solidarity, we have been addressing since the migration crisis arose. There are many cultural and legal issues that newcomers must understand. In principle, we have observed that in the countries of origin of these families, it is not mandatory for children to go to school. In New York, yes,” a municipal source told El Diario.
According to some informal records, the large proportion of children who sell chocolates and chewing gum are children of single mothers from the mountains of Ecuador. Mostly originating from indigenous communities.
Therefore, the flyers and hand cards will be translated into 10 languages, including Quechua, one of the most spoken indigenous languages in South America.
Likewise, Anne Williams-Isom, vice mayor of health and human services, told local media that this is a preventive strategy, since the City does not seek to fine immigrants and does not want to apply a law enforcement approach towards minor vendors. old.
“It is possible that many immigrants do not realize that their children are breaking the law,” he said.
Some organizations such as the New York Immigrant Coalition (NYCI) have already questioned that all information efforts, which do not end in offering more stability and more resources to these families, will be nothing more than a “good intention.”
“They are informing and warning that they cannot do it. That they should be in schools. But what other insertion alternative are you offering,” activists replied.
“He is registered, but he didn’t want to go”
At some intersections in Queens, the presence of school-aged children has also been evident, selling bottles of water and candy in the company of their parents, during fractions of the day, when they should obviously be in the classroom.
“What happens is that the father has gone looking for work and can’t find it. We live in a hostel. We have to do something, even if it’s just to buy deodorant and personal hygiene items. I have looked for a job in cleaning, even for a few hours and I can’t find it. He is enrolled in school in third grade. But today he didn’t want to go. He is very attached to me,” commented a Hispanic migrant, who sold bottled water at the entrance to the Columbus Circle station in Manhattan, with the help of her son.
Community leaders who follow this “survival dynamic” on the streets of the Big Apple assure that school-age children who arrive at shelters continue to rise, as do those who must drop out of the classrooms.
And, precisely, this conclusion is verified when it is officially specified that the number of students registered, in the list of “homeless” in public schools in the city of New York, reached a historical maximum of 120,000 last year, while Immigrants who crossed the border with Mexico continue to arrive requesting accommodation.
Since last summer alone, more than 30,000 new students have been counted who are in municipal shelters, hotels, family homes and other temporary accommodations.
When education is not a priority
These children naturally have family pictures of atrocious poverty and high vulnerability, where education is not the priority, but survival.
This is demonstrated with her personal anecdote by the Venezuelan, Gladys Suárez, 28, who admits that from the first day she arrived in the city, her two children, ages 7 and 10, were guaranteed school tuition, school supplies, clothing and food, although the force of her reality has forced her, so that a classroom does not have much weight in her personal scale, at least, at this moment.
“We left our country precisely because there was no future for our children. I dream that they continue studying and progress. Let them go to Harvard. But now in this situation, it is very difficult for them to be constant. I see it as a temporary pause, while I stabilize. Maybe for the next school year we will be more comfortable,” says Gladys, who had to apply to another shelter in the Bronx, when her 60-day stay period expired.
The majority of Hispanic migrant children who “surf” on trains or on the streets of the Big Apple accompanying their parents, selling some products, come from Venezuela and Ecuador, two countries shaken by devastating political, economic and violence crises.
Added to these particular crises is that they are the two countries with the highest school dropout rates in Latin America.
“They have to attend classes”
As Hildalyn Colón, spokesperson for the organization New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE), highlights, the notable presence of school-age children involved in informal trade is just one of the angles of the migratory flow, which also highlights the great limitations that working families have with child care in the Big Apple.
“In our sessions we make it very clear to our partners that children and adolescents have to be not only enrolled, but also attending their schools. Regardless of the fact that the priority for many recently arrived family groups is to survive, to produce money to follow the American dream. The laws are the laws. And we must comply with them,” stressed the activist of this non-profit organization, located in Queens, which fights against labor exploitation.
Colón says that in many cases, 15- and 16-year-old adolescents approach NICE who came to the country with the priority of working to help their family, but they must understand that they can only do so with a special license or permit. And most importantly, outside of school hours.
“We have served teenagers who come with their parents to enroll in Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) courses and they barely find out that they can enter this industry, only when they are of legal age,” he added.
In NY it is mandatory to go to school:
- Full-time school attendance is mandatory for those under 16 years of age.
- High school graduates, regardless of age, are not required to continue attending school. However, they must provide the employer with a certificate of full-time employment until they turn 18.
- Minors under 14 years of age can never be employed, neither after school nor on vacation.
- Minors who are 14 and 15 years old can work after school hours and during their vacations, but not in factory jobs. They can do deliveries and office work and similar service establishments, but there are many exceptions and a work permit is required.