Knowledge Center

The New York Foundation looks to connect its grantees and other nonprofit organizations in New York City with resources useful in achieving our common goals. With our Knowledge Center we collect reports, case studies, policy briefs, and other knowledge assets produced by New York Foundation grantees and affiliated organizations. While some of these works were funded by the Foundation, our goal in providing this collection is to put a spotlight on the contributions that Foundation grantees have made to social issue analysis and problem solving.
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Our Stories and Visions: Gender in Black Immigrant Communities

February 12, 2021

Because this report discusses topics that some may find triggering, we have broad content warnings for the whole report which include: racism, displacement, civil war, misogynoir, xenophobia, sexual assault, police brutality, immigration enforcement (ICE), deportation as well as mental and physical health. At the beginning of each chapter, section-specific content warnings are also provided. Below each graph and image, we include descriptive captions for accessibility.Our report is story-driven, which means that we center the voices and experiences of the individuals that we interviewed. We include quotes from them throughout the report. While we may not necessarily agree with all of the content or the language used in each quote, we include them because we believe they help paint a holistic picture of the stories and visions of Black immigrants.For confidentiality reasons, we have removed most personal identifiers and only refer to participants by their location and age. Towards the end of the report, we have a works cited page where you can see some of the articles, projects, and stories that inspired our research. 

Laal (2019-2020 Annual Report)

September 9, 2020

In the same spirit of striving for change within one's community, Laal conducted a thorough needs-based assessment in Norwood, from March to August of 2019, where we surveyed 200 Bangladeshi and South Asian womxn. These surveys asked qualitative and quantitative questions to determine what resources the community needed and what the most prominent problems facing the community were. These surveys were also imperative in establishing a rapport with the local community members and laying a foundation within a community that has historically been overlooked and underserved for over 30 years. Through programming and resources, Laal aims to create an active community of womxn who can empower themselves and one another through direct action and deliberative dialogue. Historically, immigrant Bangladeshi womxn in New York City have lacked the necessary space and resources to learn English, obtain a job, or vote because they have been treated as second-class citizens-- culturally, systematically, and institutionally. Laal is eradicating a stigma that has been culturally, traditionally, and religiously interwoven into this community's foundation; in following Septima Clark's legacy, we too, believe that Bangladeshi womxn will find liberation through literacy. 

The Courthouse Trap: How ICE Operations Impacted New York’s Courts in 2018

January 29, 2019

The Immigrant Defense Project closely monitors ICE activity at state courthouses in New York and around the country. Under the Trump administration, we have documented an alarming 1700% increase in ICE arrests and attempted arrests across New York State. The consequent threats to universal access to justice and to public safety are tremendous, as immigrant communities become too afraid to seek justice in criminal, family, and civil courts.

Five Year Report and Five Year Vision

December 28, 2018

African Communities Together recently celebrated five years of making change for African immigrant communities. Take a look at our report on what we've accomplished together over the past five years, and our exciting vision for the next five years!

Swept Up in the Sweep: The Impact of Gang Allegations on Immigrant New Yorkers

June 27, 2018

Swept up in the Sweep: The Impact of Gang Allegations on Immigrant New Yorkers details the Trump administration's using supposed-gang enforcement to carry out punitive immigration policies. Through an extensive field study, the report shows how Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with other federal agencies and law enforcement, uses arbitrary methods to profile immigrant youth of color to allege gang affiliation. The report was written in collaboration with the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) and the Immigrant and Non-Citizen Rights Clinic (INRC) at the CUNY School of Law.

Black Lives at the Border

January 1, 2018

Black immigrants are one of the fastest growing demographics in the United States. Nonetheless, this group remains a novelty in the broader immigration discourse. This report aims to elevate the conditions facing Black immigrants in the United States, drawing particular attention to their experience in the criminal law and immigration systems. This report argues that like African-Americans, Black immigrants experience disparate, often negative, outcomes within various social and economic structures in the United States, including the country's mass criminalization and immigration enforcement regimes.

Blueprint for Immigrant New York

November 1, 2017

For generations, immigrants have been a lifeline for New York State, helping it thrive. From building the Erie Canal, connecting the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, to powering the booming industries of Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo and so many towns and cities in between, immigrants have been at the center of the state's economic growth. When industries changed and upstate populations declined, immigrant and refugee communities provided an essential buffer, helping to support and sustain New York's "heartland." In Utica, the significant refugeepopulation (one out of every four residents is a refugee) helped preserve areas facing economic decline and in Buffalo, middle-class immigrants strengthened housing and retail markets in aging suburban neighborhoods.Despite this rich history, New York is not capitalizing fully on what immigrants can contribute to their communities and the state. For example, many immigrants lack access to vocational and technical education necessary to help local and regional economies improve. With unpredictable threats to New York's economy from the Federal government, now is a particularly important time for the state to exercise leadership and pursue leading-edge policies on behalf of immigrant New Yorkers.This Blueprint for Immigrant New York is a vision and plan to help immigrant New Yorkers, and ultimately the state at large, achieve its full potential.

Detained and Denied: Healthcare Access in Immigration Detention

February 15, 2017

NYLPI's Health Justice Program released a report documenting the serious, often life-threatening, deficiencies in the medical care provided to people detained in New York City-area immigration detention facilities. The facilities, County jails that contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), regularly failed to provide adequate medical care to those who were detained, violating their constitutional rights.  People confined to immigration detention have the right to adequate health care. Our work has shown that ICE and the County jails are delaying and denying necessary and essential care  – leading to devastating health consequences such as emergency surgery, delayed cancer diagnoses and worsening conditions of treatable diseases and pain. We hope this report shines a light on this population, a population of people we can only presume will increase as ICE raids happen across the country and President Trump promises more deportations.

The State of Black Immigrants Part I: A Statistical Portrait of Black Immigrants in the United States

September 28, 2016

The last four decades have represented a period of significant demographic change in the United States. Now more than ever, Black immigrants compose a significant percentage of both immigrant and Black populations in the U.S. overall. This report presents a statistical snapshot of the Black immigrant population, drawing upon recent studies and original analysis

The State of Black Immigrants Part II: Black Immigrants in the Mass Criminalization System

September 28, 2016

Black immigrants are one of the fastest growing demographics in the United States. Nonetheless, this group remains a novelty in the broader immigration discourse. This report aims to elevate the conditions facing Black immigrants in the United States, drawing particular attention to their experience in the criminal law and immigration systems. This report argues that like African-Americans, Black immigrants experience disparate, often negative, outcomes within various social and economic structures in the U.S., including the country's mass criminalization and immigration enforcement regimes.

Where's My Seat? How School Overcrowding Disproportionally Impacts Immigrant Communities in New York City

November 1, 2015

School overcrowding, which occurs when "the number of students enrolled in the school is larger than the number of students the school was designed to accommodate," is rampant in New York City's public school system. Across the city, students are forced to learn in crammed classrooms, ill-equipped trailers or temporary classroom units (TCUs), or other spaces not intended for instruction. New York City's Department of Education (DOE) has acknowledged that more than 49,000 new seats need to be created to address the problem and committed to creating fewer than 33,000 new seats in coming years, and other more likely estimates put the number at more than 100,000.

Empty Judgments: The Wage Collection Crisis in New York

February 25, 2015

Across all low-wage industries, employers regularly fail to pay workers the wages required by law. However, despite increased efforts to combat rampant wage theft, New York law fails to hold employers accountable. Even when workers take an employer to court and win, employers often avoid paying what they owe. In the months or years it takes to get a court judgment, employers transfer money from their bank accounts, put property in the names of family members, close down their business or change its name, create sham corporations, ignore court orders, or leave the country with their property. Unlike other states, New York law does not provide adequate protection against these tactics. As a result, many workers never get paid the wages they earned, even when they engage in a lengthy legal process. This report is a snapshot of this wage collection crisis in New York. We explain why New York law fails to stop evasive employers from paying their workers, and we share the stories of workers affected by this failure. From 17 legal service organizations and employment attorneys who represent low-wage workers, we identified 62 recent New York federal and state court wage theft judgments that employers have not paid. These 62 cases collectively represented a total of over $25 million owed to 284 workers. New York law was of no assistance: the employers in these cases successfully avoided paying the wages ordered by the courts.

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