1. Were the tenements and crowded communities of NYC and other US cities that much better/ more desirable than the living conditions in 19th century Eastern Europe? Considering the crowded state of the Pale of Settlement and the conditions fostered by the May Laws being hardly better than the slums created by influx of immigrants into the tenements of the Lower East Side. The only reason I can think of is the lack of pogroms, but that is only marginally better in the best of situations.

2. Are policies/governments favorable to immigration to the US the  most important reason for immigration after the 1970s? That networks of immigrants grow because people send back for their family members and friends is blatantly obvious; however, do “modern” immigrants come to the US more because of the existing community or “because they can” (23)?