Capstones
Graduation Date
Fall 12-13-2025
Grading Professor
Andrew Calderon
Subject Concentration
Engagement Journalism
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Abstract
Since the spring of 2022, over 200,000 migrants and asylum seekers have arrived in New York City. For three years, the Eric Adams administration’s response shifted constantly, from welcoming new arrivals with open arms, to clashing with the Biden White House over federal support, to collaborating with the Trump administration’s mass deportation regime
Behind all these headlines and political fights, the city’s outer borough neighborhoods have absorbed new arrivals in school systems, gig work economies and over 150 shelters. Local government and corporate news media have largely failed to inform the public about the city's shelter program, allowing confusion and fear-mongering to dominate public perception of migrants. Now as the shelter program slowly winds down and city officials avoid discussing their impact, it is necessary to begin to define how the asylum crisis will be remembered in the communities it most affected.
Building from my time as a local reporter and newspaper editor in Western Queens, I documented the communities that welcomed asylum seekers and migrants to Long Island City, how they felt about the city’s shelter programs, and the shared efforts it took to feed, house, clothe and accommodate new arrivals.
Link to capstone presentation: https://express.adobe.com/publishedV2/urn:aaid:sc:US:8063c6a5-abbe-4ee5-8abc-6667d5d3bce7?promoid=Y69SGM5H&mv=other
Recommended Citation
Finnerty, Charles, "The Remnants of NYC's Asylum Shelters" (2025). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gj_etds/864
