“I came to America because I heard the streets were paved with gold. When I got here, I found out three things. First, the streets weren’t paved with gold; second, they weren’t paved at all: and third, I was expected to pave them” an old Italian immigrant once said. Immigrants faced many obstacles coming to America such as finding work, finding a place to live, acclimating to their new surroundings and learning to communicate. When immigrants came to America, they expected their life to become better and have an easier life. In addition, all the difficulties they went through wasn’t worth what they received in America. Immigrating to America came with many consequences such as terrible working conditions, discrimination and harsh living conditions. …show more content…
Work was strictly regulated, working hours were long. Factory conditions were also poor and in some cases, deplorable. Work sites lacked effective government regulation which caused unsafe and unhealthy conditions. Most immigrants worked low-paying unskilled jobs in factories. Factory work was strenuous and dangerous where they had little hope for advancement. The typical salary was $6 a week which doesn't add up to the work they did. A typical worker was expected to work sixteen hours daily six days a week, possibly hundred-hour work week. They suffered from severe skin conditions from work. Children and women also faced harsh working conditions where children were mostly under the age of sixteen and were paid less than ten cents a day for fourteen hour days of work. They helped support …show more content…
Families had to share a small home with many other families, or even complete strangers because many were too poor to afford their own homes. As a result, many diseases were spread, which accounted for many deaths. Most of the poor people lived in overcrowded and inadequate tenements. Sanitary actions were often non-existent. Many toilets were found outside the houses and solid waste was usually just thrown in a large pile near their homes. Liquid for the toilets and waste would seep down into the ground and would often contaminate water supplies. Liquids carried disease and germs into drinking water. Living conditions were very tiresome and harsh because families had to work almost all day to provide enough money to feed themselves. Environments were very stressful, unhealthy and hazardous due to all the factories surrounding them. Immigrants lived in dirty and damp homes which were affected by tuberculosis. Most people lived in the slum, five to nine people lived in a single room which was as big as an apartment. Diseases spread rapidly and lack of medical care resulted in many deaths. The majority of the people living in industrialized areas lived in terrible, harsh conditions because of the lack of money and the overpopulated
Disease was common and easily spread across the city because all the people lived so close. It became an unsanitary place to live. Although, there was a positive reaction that influenced the conditions to be improved. There was more educated people who were able to care for others and treat them of their sickness. Document ten explains in depth why the conditions were improved.
The two arguments, Coming and Going: Round-Trip to America by Mark Wyman and Permanently Lost: The Trauma of Immigration by Victor Greene provides readers with an insight about the crucial labor conditions, the physical and mental deformities, and the struggles to gain a small fortune immigrants from various countries faced during their stay in America. In Wyman’s argument, the author focused on the harsh living/ working conditions immigrants experienced while building up a new, industrialized nation. Despite such cruel conditions, the author acknowledges the fact that immigrants chose to be mistreated and work for low wages in hopes to save enough fortune to take back to their homelands. In Greene’s argument, the author focuses on the sorrow
Immigrants lived in very severe conditions and were secluded to their own neighborhoods. They worked really hard but never got enough to show for it. It is much how immigrants live now. Men work in factories and doing other physical labor during the days while women stay at home and take care of the kids and clean the house. Another drawback to be an immigrant was that most of them were illiterate and would need someone to read and write their letters.
Immigrant workers had to be in these living situations until the annexation of the United States. would come in 1898. One of the living situations that the immigrant workers would face is how they would be so crowded with other workers in the camps. Plus, the work camps were very unsanitary which they could get sick or catch diseases of which we don’t need the workers to spread their germs. For example, two couples would often share a 10 square-foot house that had a kitchen and a homemade stove. Basically these are two of the living situations that immigrant workers had to go through.
Employees were often in dangerous working zones or conditions and there were not many laws to protect their wellbeing and their safety. Workers during this time employees like the workers that worked in steel mills had very long work days, longer than most citizens in the United States. Many times the workers in the steel mill would lose fingers just working in the mill. Also at this time, there was a lot of child labor going
Many families were threatened by advancing cholera and smallpox which would spread very fast because they lived in the small badly ventilated tenements that housed many families. There are modern day tenements, but now they are called apartments. The definition of a tenement is “occupied by three or more families, living independently and doing their cooking on the premises; or by more than two families on floor, so living and cooking and having a common right in the halls, stairways, yards, ect.” The modern tenements are much cleaner with better lighting and
1 million immigrants move to America each year due to it being an exceptional nation. We are an exceptional nation because we have more rights than any other country, we are more equal than most, and we also have more of a choice in our government than the rest of the world. America is the one country everybody is fighting to get into due to its amount of freedom.
Immigration and naturalization seem to be a relentless ever present concern of the American government. The immigration of different European, Jewish, Asian, and Hispanic groups during different eras of American history have continuously raised interest in how the government should balance America’s reputation for being a welcoming place where anyone can succeed, without sacrificing the economy. One group which was especially targeted and discriminated against by the legal system throughout American history was Asian immigrants. This is evident in naturalization laws, and the results of Supreme Court cases petitioned by predominantly Chinese as well as other Asian groups such as Japanese and Hindus.
Twenty million undocumented immigrants live in the United States today. About one-hundred thousand immigrants cross the border each year, and nearly sixty percent of undocumented immigrants enter the U.S. legally but stay after their visa expires (Wepman 314). To enter the U.S. legally, one must have a secured job in the country. Another way to enter is by having a family member who can prove they can support the person they want to bring into the U.S. Most immigrants do not have a secure job waiting for them, or a family member inside the country. All they have is their family living in poverty, their children not being able to get an education, and their family not having enough to eat or anywhere to sleep. It is extremely expensive and may take up to ten years to go through the legal process.
In the late 1800s, the era of immigration had begun. America’s borders were flooded with various ethnic groups pursuing the “American Dream”, an opportunity to better oneself through hard work and perseverance. Yet for most people, the “American Dream” never came true, because of difficult and dangerous work, few advancement opportunities, and racism. The Slovak families in Out of This Furnace, the Krachas and Dobrejcaks, provide good examples. The first members of these families, Djuro Kracha and Mike Dobrejcak, were first generation Slovak immigrants. These two men and other members of their families, like Kracha’s daughter Mary and Mike’s son Dobie, never achieved the lasting material prosperity that was the American Dream. Much of their
Illegal immigration has been an important and serious issue for decades; which affects everyone, both Americans and immigrants themselves. Illegal Immigration has three main purposes: first to find a better life in the ?promise land?, second: free healthcare, and third: for criminal activity. Most illegal immigrants come to America with the best intentions for themselves and/or their families, but many others have alternative motives. The thing that must be remembered is that illegal immigration is illegal. It?s all in the name.
Immigrants leave their country for America because it is supposed to be a better place. A
In the discussion of immigrants living in America, one controversial issue has been whether immigrants living in America have equal opportunities as American citizen do. On the one hand, some people believe that the federal government should be of more assistance to these newcomers by improving there aid programs such as Social Security and Medical. On the other hand, some say that immigrants should not have the same opportunities as others do because they come from another country and they were not born in America. Both undocumented immigrants and those with documents struggle when they come to the United States; because they have low education levels, (health concern) hardly get help from any federal programs, are affected by the fact they
Over the past year, light has been shined upon the minor problem of immigration and the
Immigrating to America, no matter where you are coming from, has its fair share of trials and tribulations. Immigrants have to go through weeks of traveling to finally get to America and then completely rebuild their lives in this new country. While most immigrants went through similar experiences when migrating to America, , such as, traveling by sea, fighting illness, and enduring medical checkups upon arrival in Ellis Island, their ultimate reasons for leaving their home country varied, by economics, politics, or warfare.