NY TIMES: Migrant Children Sell Candy on the Subway. New York Has No Solutions.
Monica Sibri, an Ecuadorean immigrant who advocates for migrants in New York, listed a number of reasons that she said newly arrived migrants had given her for bringing their children with them to sell on the trains.
Some, she said, wrongly assume that their children can miss a semester of school and catch up easily. Some face delays getting their children enrolled because of paperwork and vaccination records. Some, she said, sold candy with their children back in Ecuador and are simply doing the same thing here as a temporary measure.
“The families are not saying they don’t want to put their kids in school,” Ms. Sibri said. “What they’re saying is they haven’t figured out the paperwork that they need to be able to put them in, and some of them aren’t trusting the system.”
Ms. Sibri and other advocates are holding sessions this spring for migrant children and their families who have become candy sellers, to help provide resources for them to pursue an education and “live with dignity.”
At 2:25 p.m. on Friday on the uptown platform at Columbus Circle in Manhattan, a woman with a small girl and smaller boy was selling Snickers and Welch’s Fruit Snacks.
Kristina Voronaia, a 32-year-old caterer from Kazakhstan, was sitting near them on the bench and glanced over. “It would be better if they were at school,” she said.
The girl went off by herself in search of customers. Josefina Vazquez, 50, a home health aide, asked where her mother was. Close by, the girl said.
“That’s bad,” Ms. Vazquez said, “using kids.”
The candy seller said she was 9 years old. She was not in school, she said in Spanish, because she hadn’t gone for a vaccine appointment.
Further down the platform, she approached Sandra Acosta beseechingly. Ms. Acosta bought a bag of peanut M&M’s. “She should be in school,” said Ms. Acosta, 55, who is also a home health aide. “And it’s dangerous — there’s a lot of crazy people.”
She thought a little more and said she felt sympathy for the child’s mother. “Maybe she doesn’t have anyone to leave them with, to care for them,” she said. “We have to see the balance from both sides.”
Liset Cruz contributed reporting.
Andy Newman writes about New Yorkers facing difficult situations, including homelessness, poverty and mental illness. He has been a journalist for more than three decades. More about Andy Newman
Why Children Are Selling Candy in the Subway During School Hours - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
