On December 19th, I interviewed Manija Mayel. She works with Welcome Home New Jersey, an organization that works with migrants who have found refuge in New Jersey. They help migrants with legal tasks and paperwork such as applying for healthcare benefits, or daycare for their children. Mayel is a child of Immigrants herself, with her mother being a refugee from India. However, many new migrant experiences are much different than her parents’.
Her parents said it was difficult for them in America at first, speaking little English, which made it hard for them to find a job. However, with much work ethic they found successful careers as a nurse (her mother), and an entrepreneur (her father). This experience is out of reach for new migrants coming in. With the cost of living going up, and job opportunities being sparse, all aspects of starting a new life in America are substantially harder. Although, New York and New Jersey are considered “sanctuary cities” for migrants and refugees which means that their rights here are far more equitable than in rural areas, or red states. Mayel’s goal for Welcome Home is for her to be able to teach migrants how to be able to be self-reliant. She believes that if they are dependent on people like her, they’ll never learn how to face these situations on their own. She’d rather lead the way, so that they can take on similar challenges in their future.
With the Trump-Vance administration coming in very soon, it has made futures for migrants and refugees very uncertain, but Manija and her team are making sure that every migrats knows their rights, or finalizing their paperwork for VISAs or asylum. She told us that if everyone just took a second look at the migrants and refugees coming in, our perspective would change tremendously. Many of us can see ourselves in them, so we need to make sure we treat migrants and refugees just as we would any other person.
