{"id":620719,"date":"2024-05-16T20:29:54","date_gmt":"2024-05-16T17:29:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/new-york-city-mayor-calls-immigrants-excellent-swimmers\/"},"modified":"2024-05-16T20:29:54","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T17:29:54","slug":"new-york-city-mayor-calls-immigrants-excellent-swimmers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/new-york-city-mayor-calls-immigrants-excellent-swimmers\/","title":{"rendered":"#New York City Mayor Calls Immigrants ‘Excellent Swimmers’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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New York City Mayor Eric Adams suggested Tuesday that immigrants could help solve the city\u2019s lifeguard shortage because they\u2019re \u201cexcellent swimmers,\u201d a remark that sparked outrage among immigrant advocates and confusion among lifeguards.<\/p>\n

At a press conference<\/a> on Tuesday, a reporter asked Adams for an update on the city\u2019s lifeguard shortage in light of Memorial Day app<\/a>roaching. The mayor asked the reporter to imagine if the city could expedite work permits for migrants and asylum seekers so they could work jobs that need to be filled.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do we have a large body of people that are in our city, and country, that are excellent swimmers and at the same time we need lifeguards\u2014and the only obstacle is that we won\u2019t give them the right to work to become a lifeguard?\u201d Adams said at the press conference.<\/p>\n

A City Hall spokesperson said in a statement to TIME that Adams \u201chas repeatedly pointed out\u201d that there are people who are qualified for vacant city jobs in industries including food service, construction, manufacturing, and lifeguarding, but who can\u2019t work because the federal government hasn\u2019t issued them their work authorization.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith more than 197,000 migrants who have come through our care since the spring of 2022, Mayor Adams has been clear that there is nothing more un-American than not allowing someone to work,\u201d the spokesperson continued. \u201cAnyone who is trying to make more out of the mayor continuing to make that point (Tuesday) is missing the forest for the trees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read More: <\/strong>The Global Immigration System Is Failing. There\u2019s a Better Way<\/em><\/p>\n

Immigrant advocates criticized the mayor for his remarks. Murad Awawdeh, president and chief executive officer of the New York Immigration Coalition\u2014an umbrella organization that represents more than 200 immigrant and refugee rights groups in the state of New York\u2014says the mayor\u2019s remarks imply \u201cthat because some folks had to swim or wade through water on their dangerous journey seeking safety here in the United States,\u201d they would be good lifeguards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPoint blank, that comment is racist,\u201d Awawdeh says. \u201cThe mayor should not be making fun or making light of the perilous and often life-threatening journeys people take and are forced to take to escape the violence and persecution that they\u2019re facing. It\u2019s demeaning and dehumanizing, and the mayor needs to stop using dangerous language like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adams has received backlash over controversial statements he\u2019s made in the past\u2014in September, he said that the influx of asylum seekers \u201cwill destroy New York City.\u201d Awawdeh calls the mayor\u2019s language \u201cdivisive and inappropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yaritza Mendez, co-director of organizing at the immigrant advocacy group Make the Road New York, says that while she understands the mayor\u2019s point that the federal government needs to do more to expedite work permits for migrants, she thought the mayor\u2019s remarks show \u201chow out of touch\u201d he is with the immigrant community.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur community shouldn\u2019t be reduced to this comment,\u201d Mendez says.<\/p>\n

Janet Fash, who has been lifeguarding in New York City since 1979<\/a>, says it\u2019s clear that Adams \u201chit a nerve\u201d with his comments. She says she thinks the mayor was referencing the lifeguard shortage to talk about the issue of immigrants needing work permits, but she points out that \u201cthere\u2019s a process\u201d to becoming a New York City lifeguard.<\/p>\n

“I think it hit a nerve,” Fash says. “I think people in general<\/a> have rage. I mean, I just was puzzled.”<\/p>\n

Fash adds that the lifeguard shortage is a \u201ccitywide issue\u201d affecting \u201call New Yorkers.\u201d\u00a0
There\u2019s a shortage of lifeguards across the country, according to the American Lifeguard Association<\/a>. Last year, about a third of the country\u2019s 309,000 public swimming pools stayed closed or opened sporadically because of the shortage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York City Mayor Eric Adams suggested Tuesday that immigrants could help solve the city\u2019s lifeguard shortage because they\u2019re \u201cexcellent swimmers,\u201d a remark that sparked outrage among immigrant advocates and confusion among lifeguards. At a press conference on Tuesday, a reporter asked Adams for an update on the city\u2019s lifeguard shortage in light of Memorial…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":620720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/api.time.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Eric-Adams-Migrants-Lifeguards.jpg?quality=85&w=1024&h=575&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-620719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}