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Know Your Rights
Source: Daily News
Subject: Civil Rights & Immigration
Type: Media Coverage

Most migrants in NYC struggling to access legal help, other key services: survey

Most migrants in New York City are struggling to access key services like legal help, English classes, transportation, and even food, a new survey indicates. Conducted by advocacy groups Make the Road and Hester Street, the survey — which was exclusively shared with the Daily News on Monday — examined the experiences of 766 migrants who recently arrived in the city.

Only 51 of the respondents — or about 6.6% — have found lawyers to represent them as they try to apply for U.S. asylum, according to the survey, which was conducted between February and last month. To that end, less than two dozen of the migrants polled have secured permits to work legally in the U.S. while their asylum claims are processed, the groups found.

Beyond spotty access to legal services, the survey shows that 197 of the respondents said they aren’t eating three full meals per day, while 446 don’t have access to reliable transportation. Another 197 said they don’t have warm clothing.

The city is supposed to provide free English classes to migrants, but 478 of the survey’s respondents said they had not been able to get enrolled in such courses. Of the 461 respondents with children, only 339 have been able to enroll all their kids in a city public school, the study also found.