How I overcame reporting challenges to tell the stories of newly arrived migrants in NYC

Last year, I interviewed newly arrived migrants in Brooklyn and Manhattan who were trying to eke a better life amid the harsh realities of New York City. I was repeatedly struck by the faces of little kids around the migrant camps and shelters. So many of these children seemed to be hiding the hurt just below the surface, as if all it would take is one more tragedy before they completely lost their minds. I wonder if it’s the game children sometimes play: Pretending you’re OK when you aren’t. Some of them looked the way I would have looked at that age — only a few shades lighter, or in the case of the Haitians and Africans, darker. I knew that look, as a kid from the infamous Chicago projects called Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago. My heartbreak over seeing young migrant children homeless was a prime motivator for my taking on this reporting project for Prism.

But telling their stories was not easy. One the most significant reporting challenges I faced was the language barrier. My Fellowship was focused on interviewing communities of people from South and Central America. Spanish is not my native language, and so I found myself in a difficult spot when it came to interviewing Spanish-speaking migrants. When I began the National Fellowship, I was working with a bilingual photojournalist. About two weeks in, he disappeared and I never heard from him again. 

Compounding my troubles was the added frustration of losing interpreters at nearly every turn. People just didn’t want to return with me to the encampments. It can be a difficult thing to view the conditions of migrants. Weeks and weeks of looking for people to be my translator cut into time I could have spent conducting interviews. I persevered, with encouragement from people who had worked with migrant communities before, like Deborah Jian Lee of Harvard Divinity School, and photojournalist Joseph Rodriguez. They were very supportive and understood my plight, offering guidance, comfort, and contacts to help me reach my ultimate goal of telling these very important stories.  

 One of the most difficult things about this entire process was gaining access to these communities, and a lot of times, I just found myself getting lucky. Various agencies offer help for migrants, but only a fraction of the more than 100 I looked into could help me with actual access. I once got lucky and spoke to an individual who worked at one of the shelters. I also received help from artist and educator Alex Strada, who has spent many years in and around the shelter system and is the artist in residence at NYC’s Department of Homeless Services, where she has come across many migrants. Throughout my reporting, I was able to interview about a dozen migrants.  

My advice for people taking on a similar challenge is to set up a series of backup sources and subjects for your reporting, in the event none of your original plans pan out. Start collecting contacts at the beginning. Don’t wait. Check out local colleges for help from people studying something similar to what you’re researching. I also reached out to professional writers who had done pieces similar to mine, like the writer-artist Molly Crabapple. Molly told me that she has felt anxiety about failing migrant communities when doing research and reporting. Doubting whether you will do true justice to the people who are trusting you with their stories is a common fear for journalists. Molly’s words helped give me a little more confidence in my project, by confirming that if you have any empathy as a journalist, you will also have similar struggles.

Finally, try to get psychological help during this process. For me, it was a complete necessity. For most of you embarking on a major project, this will be one of the most stressful challenges of your life. I remember thinking about how many of these migrants wouldn’t succeed in their aims to gain legal status. There was always that looming thought that I would never be able to help them. That’s too much for one person to deal with alone. You should not take this on by yourself.  

Most of my time was spent wishing I had done these things beforehand. I’m grateful for the experience and what I learned about migrants. I would encourage anyone with the drive to tell these stories of vulnerable migrants to throw their hat in the ring and give it a try. Just be aware that it is one heck of a challenge and that it takes more than guts to complete. Real journalism happens here. Are you ready?