New York seeks to include immigrant neighborhoods in the “World Cup” atmosphere

World Cup fever began to hit the immigrant communities in New York, where fears of the deportation campaign launched by the administration of US President Donald Trump cast a shadow over the movement of customers.

In “Little Haiti” in Brooklyn, streets that were bustling with merchants appeared quiet earlier in the week, and Mahalia DeRosier, a project manager for the civic group “Little Haiti BK,” said that she had seen some stores closed even though the neighborhood had not actually been subjected to raids by immigration agents, but she had become more confident that the community would regain its “joy” as Haiti’s first participation in the World Cup in more than 50 years approached.

“I think the World Cup will give people a sense of life, hope and energy,” DeRosier told Agence France-Presse. “Haitians will put their flag above everything, and we will color this city red and blue.”

City officials are conducting field tours in immigrant neighborhoods, before the start of the first matches on June 11, 2026, to promote opportunities related to the tournament.

The city’s tourism agency is preparing a tournament calendar so visitors can follow the matches in the neighborhoods where the passion is greatest, not just in the tourist areas of Manhattan, and is planning to post short videos promoting the viewing parties on social media.

As part of another program called “Fiveboro Winners Special,” restaurants and cafes will be provided with free soccer-themed drinking glasses. “With the World Cup, it’s an opportunity to perhaps reach a new market, to a new group of people who may not have visited your business and your area before,” said Jack Brunville, communications officer for the New York City Department of Small Business Services.

There are five souvenir cups, one for each of New York’s five boroughs, and the city hopes that tourists will collect the five cups and post their pictures on the Internet, while a spokesman for the New York Tourism Authority said that the collection consists of “taxi yellow for the Bronx, coffee blue for Brooklyn, orange for Manhattan, red for Queens, and green for Staten Island.”

Brunville imagines the five boroughs as the backdrop for a traveling sports festival that celebrates the diversity of New York City. “We believe that depending on the match, we will see groups of people moving to different parts of the city, whether to Little Haiti to watch the Haiti match, or to an area like Little Senegal (in Harlem) to watch that match,” he added. “People will move to feel the energy with the fans of that different country.”

New York’s immigrant communities have felt under siege since Donald Trump returned to the White House and launched a sweeping deportation campaign, and city officials have noted that impact informally, but say they lack the tools to measure the economic impact.

During a City Hall hearing, Small Business Services Administration chief of staff Harris Khan said the agency tracks real estate trends, but “just because occupancy rates are healthy doesn’t necessarily mean we’re in good shape for our immigrant communities.” Khan told the hearing that his agency saw the World Cup as an opportunity, but acknowledged that it “certainly will not fully alleviate the year and a half of pain that some of these businesses have been experiencing.”

At the Golden Blue Bar & Restaurant, Amanta Cherry, who helps run the restaurant owned by her parents, expressed her confidence that the community will come out to celebrate, and tickets for Haiti’s first match against Scotland on June 13 in Boston are currently priced at more than $600 on the Stahub website.

“There was a struggle because of the way Haiti was portrayed in the press, and because of talk about Haiti being very dangerous,” she said. “But there is so much resilience and beauty in our culture and with our people. I’m just happy that we are finally in the press for something wonderful.”