“Work Is freedom”: How migrants start anew in Massachusetts and why they pick the Bay State

ROXBURY, MASS., APRIL 18, 2024…..About two months after immigrating to Massachusetts, Junior Alexandre is hopeful he will be able to begin work as a personal care attendant soon, a way to support his four children and take another step towards a new life in the United States.

Alexandre and his family, immigrants from French Guiana, are on a waitlist to be housed in the state’s emergency family shelter system. They are currently sleeping at the overflow site Gov. Maura Healey’s administration opened in a Roxbury community center, where about 400 cots have been set up to provide a temporary roof over people’s heads as the shelter system buckles under a heavy wave of immigration and homelessness among families from Massachusetts.

Both the federal government and the state have taken efforts to streamline the process to approve new immigrants to work in the U.S. Work authorizations are a key part of Healey’s strategy to move people out of the overwhelmed shelter system, so they can support themselves and their families without relying on the state.

“Work is life, work is freedom,” Alexandre, who was among the first immigrants to get a work permit through a new state program, told the News Service through a translator. “I want to be able to work and take care of the needs of my family.”

‘In Search Of A Better Life’

Alexandre and his family arrived in Texas on Feb. 5, going through immigration and choosing to be redirected to Massachusetts.

Alexandre said he chose Massachusetts because he had heard he would find help in the Bay State.

“We were in search of a better life, and since we know no one in America, Boston is known as a place who helps immigrants. We came here knowing we could get help, and that way we could help our family and move on,” he said. His case worker translated for him from Haitian Creole into English for the interview.

Most families say they came to Massachusetts because they see on social media that they will receive services, said Patricia Zio, program director at the Bay State Community Services welcome center in Quincy.

“It kind of paints it as, ‘Come to Boston and you’ll get a house and a job and all of this for free. So just come up to Boston.’ And that hasn’t changed. I think a lot of people come here and they’re struggling, because they’re hearing about this opportunity that’s beyond their wildest dreams,” she said.

Many Haitian families are choosing Massachusetts because the state already has the third-largest Haitian population in the country, Zio added.

Alexandre’s family landed at Logan Airport on Feb. 7, where they were immediately directed to Quincy. They were added to the waitlist for emergency family shelter and met with a lawyer to apply to work in the U.S.

His wife had her working papers by Feb. 17, and on the 20th, he received his.

‘Lawyer For A Day’

Alexandre and his wife were among the first immigrants to use the Healey administration’s new “lawyer for a day” program to get their working permits.

The program was launched Jan. 30 to bring private lawyers to meet newly arriving migrants where they already are, at the “welcome centers” meant to be a one-stop shop for immigrants to apply for shelter and working papers, and get supplies such as diapers and food.

Since January, these lawyers have helped between five and 19 immigrants per day to kick off their work authorization process soon after they arrive in the country. Another center in Allston began running its own “lawyer for a day” program in mid-April.

The Quincy center has processed more than 460 migrants’ working papers — none of which have been denied yet — and the newly-running Allston center started off with about 30 in its first week.

“The lawyers love doing it,” said Susan Church, the chief operating officer of the Office for Refugees and Immigrants who came up with the idea for the program. “We had a tremendous response just to the first program in Quincy that we couldn’t even accept all the lawyers who wanted to do it … The lawyers are really trying hard to get these filed, as many as possible. There was a friendly competition among some of the lawyers at Quincy to see who could break the record for most applications filed in a day.”

The pilot program is funded through the Office for Refugees and Immigrants budget, with an estimated cost of $800,000. 

Church said work authorizations are a “lifeline” for migrants on the waitlist for overflow shelter, such as those who are sleeping at Logan Airport without another option for a roof over their head.

The state pays the attorneys an average $250 per application. Church said applications could cost around $800 if immigrants went through private lawyers’ offices.

One of the main reasons Church hoped to pilot the program is to prevent families from being taken advantage of by “bad actors” who charge hundreds of dollars.

“Oftentimes, they are falling prey to people who are just wanting to take advantage, trying to make a quick buck,” Bianca Jordan, an immigration attorney who participates in the “lawyer for a day” program, said. “And before you know it, if their case is denied, they end up in removal proceedings, which makes their case even more complicated and expensive.”

Only new families coming into the state can access this service, which has a limited capacity, said Zio, the Quincy welcome center program director. The welcome centers are not offering the program to families already enlisted in the state’s emergency family shelter system, where thousands of families are currently staying. 

The new state program is happening simultaneously with a pledge from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to streamline its end of approving the working papers as hundreds of thousands of new immigrants come into the U.S. each month. This process is notoriously long and complicated. In the past, it took an average of three months for migrants to hear back about whether they could legally work, a representative from USCIS said. Since the fall, it’s taken about 30 days.

Healey’s administration and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security held work authorization clinics for immigrants in November, during which over 1,900 people applied for permission to work in the U.S.

USCIS continues to run a pared-down version of this “clinic” at the John F. Kennedy Federal Building in downtown Boston where, in coordination with the state, immigrants can come every Friday to complete necessary biometric screenings for working papers.

A migrant who is processed on a Thursday could get legal help at the Quincy or Allston welcome centers and have their biometrics done by Friday, USCIS said.

Between October 2023 and the beginning of April, the federal government approved about 39,000 initial work permits for newly arrived noncitizens where the listed address on their application was in Massachusetts, according to USCIS. These numbers only reflect employment authorization applications where the listed address was Massachusetts, and doesn’t cover the full scope of all immigrant benefit types nor mean these applicants settled permanently in Massachusetts.

Though migrants are getting their work authorizations much more quickly, Zio said, many who can legally work are still having trouble finding work due to language barriers. The Boston Globe reported immigrants who have their working papers are still struggling to find employment, despite a workforce shortage across the state.

The Quincy center is now offering a variety of classes, including English language classes. The vast majority of immigrants coming into Massachusetts are from Haiti and the surrounding area, she said.

The current wave of Haitian and some Venezuelan immigrants are somewhat different from other recent waves of immigration. Unlike noncitizens who came from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador in the past decade, many Haitians and Venezuelans do not have family in the U.S. to stay with while they get on their feet. And as they are focused on fleeing violence in their country back home, many do not speak English.

“We’re looking to bring in other services like English language training and job training, resume writing, those kinds of things,” Zio said. “That’s the point and vision of the family welcome center, wanting to create a buffet where we lay out all the services for you and you come and get what you need.”

Zio said she’s hoping to launch virtual job and resume training by the end of May.

Training For A Career Change

Alexandre worked as a social worker in his home country of French Guiana. Now in the U.S., he is taking classes to become a personal care attendant, who help care for the elderly and people with disabilities so they can stay in their homes and not move to long-term care facilities.

His wife is undergoing the same trainings, also hoping to work in home health care. There is a shortage of home care workers throughout the state, and unions, consumers who need these services, and government officials have all called for help plugging the holes in the industry.

Sleeping at the Roxbury overflow shelter, Alexandre and his wife take turns bringing their four children to Boston Public Schools, while the other studies. Just four days into a free PCA training program, Alexandre was on his fourth course.

His social worker said Alexandre has also helped other immigrants in the shelter sign up for the classes and begin training to be a home health aide.

Alexandre is also taking English classes and said he is learning “as fast as he can.”

“When I first came, I was told that prior to me coming, in the past years the process was pretty slow,” he said. “Because when we do the process ourselves as migrants, it might take longer. But when we have professionals supporting us, it goes way faster… That’s the reason we came here. To give the kids a better life, a better environment, so they can experience something different.”

Massachusetts is the first state to try the “lawyer for a day” approach, and USCIS is running similar biometric clinics like the one at the JFK Federal Building in New York, Colorado and Illinois.

“Our family welcome centers have been a really great resource to help with the influx of migrants. We just had resources available in Massachusetts that solve some of the big problems that other states don’t have,” Church said. “Resilient families are very eager to work, and even if they arrive at Logan exhausted, they’re more than happy to work with our lawyers.”