Hey guys! My name is Christopher Aebig, or Chris for short, and I am currently studying biomedical engineering here at City College. I am from Yonkers, New York, the city just north of the Bronx, so I’m technically not from the city even though I am in very close proximity to and went to high school here in the city. I currently live at the Towers here at CCNY. I’m pretty much a typical third/fourth generation white American, with my mom’s side of the family being of Italian descent and my dad’s side being primarily of German descent. In my spare time I usually like to sleep, listen to music, play games, or do another low energy-consuming activities. In this class, I’m looking forward to getting a chance to look at the people of New York in greater detail that I ever have before.

IMMIGRATION STORY

BLOG POSTS

During our visit to the Tenement Museum, I originally found myself intrigued by the fact that the immigrant families whose homes we observed created a kind of makeshift factory in their own home. When I originally thought of sweatshops, I pictured large buildings packed to the brim with workers whose identity was nothing more than a number. However, I was surprised to see that the original versions of sweatshops were actually run within the homes of the immigrant families. The home and the workplace became interchangeable entities, for nearly every aspect of the home had been modified in some way to maintain a productive work environment. Needless to say, the entire family, including young children, was forced into the family business regardless of choice. Characteristics that I noticed in these home-factories were very tight quarters and lack of light and ventilation, conditions that would make working long hours each day all the more unbearable.

I also found it interesting how the ability for the younger generation to move on to work in a larger factory in the city was at first considered an enticing proposition. Young people found the idea of expanding their horizons and meeting new people outside of their immediate family enticing, even though their parents were often concerned for their safety. However, I feel that most likely the young people were not at all thrilled with the conditions that they encountered at these larger sweatshops. Long hours, unsanitary conditions, and overall lack of safety were only a few of the plights that workers encountered at these larger sweatshops. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which we briefly discussed, is one of the most potent examples that exemplifies the utter lack of employee safety in these factories before the institution of labor laws.

BOOK REVIEW

From Ellis Island to JFK: New York’s Two Great Waves of Immigration

About The Author:

Nancy Foner is a distinguished professor of sociology at Hunter College whose main area of interest is immigration. Foner is the author and/or editor of sixteen books, several of which, including the book which will be discussed in the following section, focus on the comparative study of immigration, that is, comparing the immigration stories of different groups of people. Foner is also a member of several immigrant-centric committees and is on the editorial board of several different journals on immigration.

Book Review:

In her book From Ellis Island to JFK: New York’s Two Great Waves of Immigration, Nancy Foner compares the two biggest waves of immigration to New York, the first of which lasted from 1880-1920 and the second of which began in the 1960s and has continued up to the present day. The first wave of immigrants consisted of mostly people of Italian and Russian Jewish descent, while the second wave of immigrants includes Dominicans, Mexicans, Chinese, Southeast Asians, and Jamaicans. The first group of immigrants came to New York by boat through Ellis Island, while the second group has been and will continue to be arriving by plane at JFK Airport, hence the title of the book, which in itself insinuates the comparative nature of the book. It is ultimately Foner’s goal to draw out the similarities and differences between the two groups of immigrants as well as eliminate some of the stereotypes that we often associate with each group.

One of the first topics that Foner discusses is why the immigrants came to New York. Many southern Italians came to New York as a result of a changing agricultural economy in Italy, while Jews who were faced with religious persecution in their home countries came to New York seeking religious freedom. Second wave immigrants are primarily coming here for better economic opportunities. For example, a lack of technical jobs in India and Taiwan has caused an immigration of relatively skilled workers to New York. Also citing how inflation in Brazil has caused a lot of middle class people to immigrate to the United States, Foner debunks the myth that all of today’s immigrants are poor and attempting to escape poverty in their home countries. In fact, in contrast to the first wave of immigration in which most immigrants lived in ethnically segregated ghettos, many modern immigrants can afford to move straight to the suburbs and buy their own home. However, Foner points out that the common theme among immigrants is and will always be to improve their lives in some respect so that their children and their future generations of offspring will have more opportunities to succeed.

Foner also discusses the work that immigrants engaged in upon coming to New York. There was little diversity in the jobs that first wave immigrants took. For example, Italians mostly worked as factory workers and laborers, and Jewish people mostly worked in garment factories. While there are still some of these ethnic concentrations in particular fields (such as Jamaicans in nursing), on the whole modern day immigrants are a part of a much more diverse field of employment, especially considering their diverse financial backgrounds upon arrival in the United States. With regard to education, Foner claims that despite modern day perceptions, first wave immigrant parents did not place a strong emphasis on educating their children. Jewish children actually received very little education, and Italian immigrant children were looked down upon by teachers, while modern day immigrants are actually doing better in school than the public often believes.

Another heavily thematic element in the book is about racism towards immigrants and anti-immigrant sentiments. She poses interesting questions about the notions of what it means to be “white” in American culture. Originally, Italian and Jewish immigrants were not considered to be white, but rather a kind of inferior race that other white Americans did not want to associate with. This leads Foner to contemplate discrimination against immigrants and re-think the notion of what is means to be “white” from an immigrant’s perspective. For example, she presents the reader with a rather controversial statement that Asian Americans have become almost white in that they have been successful both academically and economically and have risen up the social ladder. In this case, white has become almost synonymous with successful. Other less white ethnic groups who have been taking on lower income jobs are often met with some degree of discrimination because they have been stereotyped in a particular way. Therefore, it is often the goal of many immigrants to become white in this way because it has become synonymous with ascending the social ladder. In keeping with this topic, Foner also speculates that the future generations of these newer immigrants will also become less tied to their home countries and become similar to the current generations of the descendants of European immigrants from the first wave of immigration and look back upon their own immigrant ancestors in a very romanticized way.

I felt that structurally this book was accessible and easy to read. Foner writes in a way so that all people with various degree of education would be able to understand the points she is trying to make. Rather than using all facts and charts, she describes it in a storybook kind of way that makes the reader engaged and turns the lives of immigrants over a century ago into something that we can relate to. In addition I felt that the book was very organized. Each chapter was dedicated to one particular topic that relates to the lives of immigrants, whether it be job placement, education, or discrimination. Each chapter was able to build upon the ideas discussed in each of the previous chapters, and therefore by the end of the book a holistic picture of the two different immigrant groups was painted quite nicely. I would recommend this book to anyone who wishes to learn more about the two largest waves of immigration. I would also recommend having an open mind to confronting many of the predetermined stereotypes that we have often associated with each group, for this book really breaks down these stereotypes yet does not try to remain politically correct.

RIVERDALE NEIGHBORHOOD