This web page has been thoughtfully compiled to explore the structural influences and personal experiences of undocumented workers in the U.S. and the ways they have been excluded from COVID-19 financial relief and social support.

Considerations in which we frame this work:

• Who is the research for?
• Educational page accessible to undocumented workers: presented in both English and in Spanish.
• What are we researching?
  • COVID-19 reveals flaws in humanitarian efforts in terms of citizenship status in the U.S.
  • Using the excluded workers fund as an example.
  • How beneficial are one time payment funds?

Other intentions for our research:

• Shedding light on barriers.
• Advocacy for further/repeated efforts.
• See how this interested with other barriers.
• Improving accessibility for future efforts.
• Critique of this 1-time intervention.
• Dismantling pandemic vs non-pandemic “need,” as defined by government and other outside actors.

Empirical Questions:

• What were the conditions to get funding? Who did it reach?
  • Has the government collected any data following the distribution of funds?
• Accessibility
  • In terms of language and legalese.
• Did funds make a meaningful difference in lives?
  • How is “meaningful” being defined?
• How did the fund affect opinion/patriotism?
  • In the discourse of immigration and people as “illegal.”
  • OR about long-term support/fixes.
• How are we measuring “quality of living?”
  • How does this differ across cultures and in comparison with norms in the U.S.?
  • What aspects are important/significant to our target population?
  • What’s missing or can be improved about this definition?
• What is the definition of an undocumented worker and the characteristics of their reality?

During April of 2021, the Excluded Workers Fund was passed as the first state funded program to bring emergency financial relief to those who are typically ineligible from public assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Of those who are ineligible, undocumented immigrants have been at the forefront as essential workers who were disproportionately affected by the current global health and economic crises. According to Sönmez et al. (2020), immigrant service workers have and continue to experience job, housing, food, and income insecurity in addition to little to no access to affordable healthcare prior to and during the pandemic. For example, undocumented workers don’t qualify for federal public assistance programs like Medicaid and their only means of receiving healthcare requires indebting themselves with out-of-pocket costs (Langellier, 2020). They are also unable to physically distance themselves as essential workers and don’t have the resources to get the appropriate protective equipment to protect against COVID-19 (Langellier, 2020). In looking at these conditions, our group of researchers noticed a significant lack in research around the livelihood of undocumented workers. As critical researchers, we wanted to take a closer look as to how the one-time payment would affect the quality of living of undocumented works in New York State, and how changes can be made to bring about more equity and justice for this vulnerable population. 

Through our research for further historical context and legal standpoints on this issue, we found that undocumented domestic workers experience a multitude of intersecting oppressions that have worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to white heteropatriarchal systems of power not recognizing domestic labor as “real work,” “migrant caregivers are stuck within broader social systemic issues and institutional racism” (Pandey et al., 2021, p. 1296). Pandey et al. (2021) further argued that the lack of protection for domestic workers is a racialized exclusion that emerged from Black women dominating the domestic work industry post emancipation. These prejudiced, classist and sexist beliefs are currently scapegoating domestic workers as the source of the COVID-19 virus (Pandey et. al, 2021). In a survey conducted of 80 caregivers in New York, it was found that 65% lost their jobs or were forced to reduce their hours due to the prejudice associated with COVID-19 (Pandey et al., 2021).  Since the beginning of the pandemic, the National Domestic Workers Alliance surveyed and discovered that nearly 72% of domestic workers lost their jobs (Pandey et al., 2021, p. 1293). There are little to no legal protections within New York City that protect immigrant domestic workers from exploitative, unsafe working conditions. According to Pandey et al. (2021), these conditions have only gotten worse during the pandemic. Only recently, and due to the relentless advocacy of immigrant domestic workers, was Intro 339 passed in July of 2021 to hold individuals who employ domestic workers accountable for discrimination in the workplace (Hand in Hand, 2021). Our team of researchers developed our problem statement with these factors in mind and aim to focus on the quality of living of undocumented domestic workers in New York state. In collaboration with those who are directly impacted by this research, we hope to collect evidence of the Excluded Workers Fund’s short and long term effects on this population. The hope is that this research, coupled with past research and advocacy around the state, will spur the change needed to increase federal and state aid for those who are most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic while they do the essential work that keeps our society functioning. 

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