Immigrants In the United States

From the years 1880 and 1920, over 10 million immigrants came to the United States in search for a better life. They were told the streets of America were paved with gold, and anyone could find a job and be happy.

So many came for other reasons too- Jews from Russia came to escape the prosecution happening in their villages. Italians came for jobs, because the land they had been too overworked and most of the time crops didn’t bring in enough money or failed. The Chinese came for fortune and riches, hearing the lies that Rail Road companies had spread about the booming country. No matter the ethnicity, they all had very different daily lives. Most of the lives they had left behind, they wish they could return to.

The worst of them all was the way Italian Americans lived. Many of them came from tiny towns and villages, who couldn’t support themselves because of the problems with the fields they worked in. So, they came to America in search of jobs. When they got off the boat they had been living in small, cramped conditions in for weeks, they were disappointed when they found that America wasn’t all that wonderful. Most of the Italians went to live in “Little Italy’s,” where they found that living conditions were crowed, again.

It was 5 or 6 people living in a room the size of a hotel room, except without running water and electricity. Some buildings never even had fire escapes or any fire protection. And to make matters worse, they worked the dirtiest, life threatening jobs there were at the time, only earning 10 to 40 cents a day. To live like this, is the most unspeakable human crime. These people are now American citizens, and why should they live like this? Especially people who have just come from a foreign country.

Why should we go to such lengths to do this to our own people?