For the past year, migrants have been staying at Boston Logan Airport as Massachusetts’s emergency shelter system struggled with the influx of new arrivals. With the shelters full, they sleep on makeshift bedding spread across baggage claim under constant lighting and announcements, are carted out of Logan in the morning to welcome centers, then sent back at night. Authorities have limited knowledge and control of the situation. When asked, Governor Healey’s administration couldn’t state how many migrants were arriving at the airport; the Massachusetts Port Authority didn’t know by what methods they were arriving.
Logan is just one instance of how Massachusetts is scrambling to accommodate migrants. As the situation at the airport illustrates, a major issue has been housing new migrants. With the shelters filled to capacity, the Healey administration recently began asking families who have been in the system for over nine months to leave. The first group of 150 families will be required to move out by the end of September, followed by more over time. 90-day extensions are available, but most families will be ineligible.
Reapplication to the system is also possible, but families will have to deal with eligibility and waitlist issues in the interim. For many, leaving the shelter system will exacerbate their financial and housing hardship. However, Governor Healey states that this new policy will better equip migrants “with the resources and services they need to move into more stable housing and contribute to our workforce.”
Communities where migrant shelters are located also find themselves having to admit children to their schools on short notice. In Peabody, the arrival of migrant children necessitated the addition of another kindergarten class in the middle of the school year, along with the hiring of new teachers and counselors. The ability of public schools to accommodate migrant children is vital, as schools provide not just education, but also other kinds of support and connections to the wider community.
Another major issue migrants face is in acquiring employment. Jacques, 31, who now lives in Chelsea with his godmother, migrated from Haiti in December of last year through the humanitarian parole program. Although he trained as an agronomist, he is unable to find a job in the U.S. because of the language barrier.
“I signed up for ESL classes, but…was told that I might be accepted sometime after 6-12 months,” he said.
Others have advised him to move to Iowa or Indiana, “where it might be easier for me to get a job.” However, Jacques is determined to stay put for now. “Massachusetts is the best place to live my American dream,” he says.
Junior, who also came from Haiti through the humanitarian parole program, found himself forced to leave his home and catering business.
“I had never thought of leaving,” Junior said. “But over the last two years, due to the violence of the gangs, very few clients reached out to me for my services.” After asking an aunt to petition for him, Junior was able to come to the U.S. “It was relatively easy for me to get my work authorization, and I quickly landed some small jobs.”
But he suffered from employment instability, working first as a warehouse cleaner, then at Amazon, and now as a nursing assistant.
Natacha went through a similar experience. She moved to the U.S. in July 2023, and lives with her sister in Randolph. Before, she worked two nursing jobs in Port-au-Prince to support herself and her six-year-old daughter. “I was hesitant to leave my beloved Haiti, even though I constantly lived under the threat of being kidnapped in Port-au-Prince,” she said. After moving here, however, she failed many job interviews because of her poor English proficiency, “which frustrated me and made me (want) to return to Haiti.”
She said she worries about the upcoming election and how it could alter U.S. policy toward immigrants and refugees, especially if Donald Trump is elected.
President Biden, however, has also adopted a stricter stance on the issue, placing restrictions on the number of asylum-seeking migrants this month. The president had, however, also advanced protections for undocumented immigrants with American spouses and an extension of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians.
Massachusetts politicians are divided on the matter. U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley criticized the White House for “doubl[ing] down on the previous administration’s harmful and flawed immigration policies”; migrants and their advocates expressed similar concerns. Others, such as Governor Healey, lauded the president for “stepping up to secure the border while Congress refuses to do its job.” A stricter border would alleviate the influx of immigrants the Healey administration is struggling to provide housing, education, and employment for.
There are no estimates for the total number of migrants in the state, but records indicate they make up around half of the 7,500 families in the emergency shelter system. State efforts have focused on helping them move into more stable housing through work authorizations, language classes, job placement, and rental support. According to the governor’s office, thousands of immigrants in the emergency shelter system have benefited from such assistance in the past six months. The goal is to accelerate the number of migrants moving out of the shelter system and thus mitigate the lack of housing; more than 300 families left in May, a significant increase from before.
The governor’s office further unveiled another major policy change: after a year spent at Logan’s Terminal E, migrants will no longer be allowed to stay overnight at the airport starting July 9. Instead, the authorities will either remove migrant families from the shelter system or move them to a new location.
