Beyond Brave: Personal Reflections from Working With Haitian TPS Holders
For just over a year, I was deep in the trenches. Throughout 2023 and into 2024, I held a role in municipal government here in Boston. Working for Mayor Michelle Wu's Office for Immigrant Advancement, I was brought on specifically to work to support the municipal government's role in addressing the massive influx of Haitian refugees to the city. Due to the deteriorating conditions in Haiti and an emerging network already living in the region, Boston became a major hub for thousands of Haitian refugees. But while there was a large segment of us who welcomed these new arrivals with open arms, the challenge was always going to be finding ways in which to support them through housing, job opportunities, and language barriers. Dealing with these challenges necessitated a multi-departmental approach that would bring about several early morning meetings, bringing in representatives from housing, police, emergency response, and neighborhood support, among others. There simply was no b...
