Money for immigrant language access makes it into $112.4 billion city budget; orgs ‘relieved’
by Ariama C. Long
July 4, 2024
In continuing efforts to process arrivals of asylum seekers and migrants, local immigration groups are pushing for more language access services and a central interpreter bank in New York City’s $112.4 billion fiscal year 2025 budget. They were overjoyed to see funding for language services restored, despite the city’s recent failures to keep up with local language access law.
Although President Biden’s action plan temporarily shut down the southern border this June, asylum seekers are still arriving in New York City. According to city numbers, more than 205,000 asylum seekers have arrived since the spring of 2022, with more than 65,000 still in the city’s care.
One of the main issues among West African migrants from countries like Senegal and Guinea is that some speak lesser-known dialects of various African languages, said Aminata Chabi-Leke, a founding member of AfriLingual, a worker cooperative for native Africans.
“Sometimes they will say they speak a specific language and once you start the assignment, you figure out it’s not actually the correct language,” Chabi-Leke said. “They’ll tell you ‘I speak Fulani,’ but it’s not the Fulani from Guinea; it’s from Mauritania.”
https://amsterdamnews.com/news/2024/07/04/money-for-migrant-landuage-access-makes-it-into-city-budget/
