From Assimilation to Collective Liberation
The city’s approach to immigrant integration is often trapped in the “savior” narrative Mamdani critiqued, framing newcomers as helpless victims to be assimilated into the existing bifurcated state rather than as political actors who can help transform it. This model pressures immigrants to abandon their culture and adopt the “customs” of the settler society to access scarce resources, fracturing solidarity between established and new “native” communities. The liberal solution focuses on language classes and job training for low-wage work, reinforcing their place at the bottom of the hierarchy. A Mamdani-informed socialist solution rejects this assimilationist model. It fights for the material conditions that allow all workers to unite: a universal social wage, healthcare, and housing, regardless of status. It means supporting immigrant-led worker centers and organizations that fight for collective rights, not individual inclusion. The goal is not to help immigrants become “settlers,” but to build a unified working-class power that includes them from the outset, transforming the city into a sanctuary of solidarity that challenges the very logic of borders and exclusion.
