NYC: Hundreds of Thousands of Migrants Creating Parallel Economy

Just like in their own countries.

Turning your homeland into a series of squatter camps for the poorest people from every country in the world is just common sense.

It’s our values. We do it because it’s who we are in a democracy.

It’s all about freedom, you know?

New York Post:

With stiff, cold fingers, Sambeittou Sambeittou removed the neatly folded piece of cardboard he carries in his pocket like a wallet and treats like a precious jewel.

“I’m looking for carpenter jobs” is written in marker along with a phone number.

The 45-year-old huddled with other migrants from Africa at the entrance of a Lowe’s in Brooklyn, hoping for a few dollars in tips from customers loading drywall, lumber and insulation into their vehicles.

Sambeittou never learned to read and write in Mauritania, the west African country he left three months ago on a journey that took him through Senegal, Turkey, Nicaragua and Mexico.

He spoke to The Post in halting French. His first language is Hassaniya Arabic, spoken by everyone in his hardscrabble village, where he worked as a carpenter and where his wife and three children still live.

What a wonderful new edition to our melting pot.

I’m sure he’s going to contribute a lot. And I mean a lot.

“It’s a little tough here, but I had no choice,” Sambeittou said when asked why he made the journey to New York City. “I had no idea what to expect or where I was going. I just came for work.”

Sambeittou is one of the more than 157,000 migrants who have arrived in New York City since the spring of 2022, with 68,000 now overwhelming city-run shelters, according to the city’s Department of Social Services. Unable to work legally, they are seeking employment in the burgeoning underground migrant economy — taking jobs as food delivery drivers, day laborers on building demolition sites, cooks, subway candy sellers and cleaners.

What a fun adventure this must be for them.

I’m so glad our country could be used for this purpose.

After all, I hear it every day: “America is an experiment.”

The experiment is “what if you turned developed, modern cities built by Europeans into putrid squatter camps filled with illiterate beggars from Africa and beyond?”

Many are paid in cash. And while app-based delivery drivers are paid minimum wage, they are independent contractors and employers do not withhold taxes from their wages. It’s up to the individual to file a Form 1099.

Recently arrived migrants are typically unable to work for the delivery apps because they have to produce a Social Security number and some kind of government-issued identification and demonstrate that they are legally able to work in the US.

But some migrants admitted to The Post that there is a trend of migrants sharing identity documents needed to obtain delivery jobs. So it’s virtually impossible to track who is paying taxes.

The biggest impact is that it’s going to reduce tax revenue for the city because it’s a largely cash based, unreported market,” said economist Daniel Di Martino, a graduate fellow at the Manhattan Institute. “And the city is providing all these benefits for migrants … that’s going to lead to worse social services and lower quality of life.”

We can’t control for that variable in this experiment.

The solution is to call anyone who brings it up “Nazi.”

Some new arrivals work privately delivering for a particular restaurant, experts said, and are paid in cash under the table.

Employers often receive “no match” letters from the Social Security Administration, said Andrew Rigie, executive director of the New York Hospitality Alliance, a trade association that represents the restaurant and hospitality industry. Employer Correction Request letters are sent to employers when the federal agency detects a discrepancy in information with a social insurance number, such as a name that doesn’t match their records.

“It’s been an ongoing situation,” said Rigie, whose organization has set up trainings for employers who receive the letters. “The failure of the federal government to responsibly manage immigration has caused chaos in the city. Good employers want to hire migrants for jobs that most Americans don’t want to do, but they want to do it lawfully. The failure of comprehensive immigration reform exacerbates the crisis.”

According to Di Martino, “There is a myth pushed by the left that the migrant crisis isn’t bad because we need workers. The issue is that [without the ability to work legally,] these people are not the workers we need.”

Haha.

“AI is going to take 60% of jobs, so we need illiterate African villagers to fill the other 40% of jobs.”

Just shut up, buddy. This is an experiment. Your life is part of the experiment, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it, because in a democracy, there is no way to petition grievances.

Just try to enjoy the ride…!

Migrants are also shut out of most construction jobs since they have to be legal to qualify for safety certifications and union membership, but some sites hire them for demolition and clean up and pay them in cash, contractors and migrants told The Post.

Legitimate construction businesses will not hire them because God forbid something happens to them on a job site, and we are not covered,” said one local homebuilder who also does work on Long Island and in the city. “There’s too much liability. If we pay cash it has to be reported, and migrants are not reporting cash payments.”

Many new migrants are creating their own underground economy within their community — selling homemade food to other migrants or providing them services such as hair-cutting.

“They aren’t going to a barber shop or a deli,” Di Martino said. “They’re creating cash businesses and not paying taxes.”

lol, why would they pay taxes? They don’t even love Israel and probably aren’t even aware of the Ukraine.

Monica Yamaira Arias, 43, hawks roast pork, rice and fried plantains from her perch outside the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown, which the city transformed into an intake center for recent arrivals. Arias, 43, arrived in New York more than a year ago from Venezuela, and now sits every lunch hour on a blue Igloo cooler selling home-cooked meals, packed in aluminum containers, for $10 each.

Monica Yamaira Arias, 43

“It’s what we’re used to eating in our country,” said Arias, who makes the hour-long train journey to Port Chester in Westchester County every morning at 6:30 to cook the meals in a friend’s kitchen.

Arias arrives back at the hotel around 11:30 a.m., she said, announcing “Almuerzo! Almuerzo!” (“Lunch! Lunch!”) to passersby.

Lolymar Gonzalez, 48

Fellow Venezuelan Lolymar Gonzalez, 48, helps Arias sell the meals. She arrived in the city from Caracas with her 14-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son five months ago, she said.

The women said they take in about $300 a day, and pocket about $170 after their expenses — food, transportation and a small rental fee for use of the friend’s Westchester kitchen.

Nice.

There are a lot of experiments in this country that would like to be making that kind of money by sitting around on a cooler.

These experiments are making a serious haul.

Good thing we have whites to pay taxes to keep funding these strange experiments.