This chapter went very well with our class tour of the LES Tenement Museum. As I was reading Nancy Foner’s descriptions of the conditions that the immigrants had to face, I was immediately taken back to the cramped spaces and tight households of the tenements. Though words can manufacture very vivid descriptions, and Foner’s descriptions did provoke sharp imagery of the trying conditions that the early immigrants had to face upon their arrival to the United States, the tour of the Tenement Museum really helped me fully grasp the harsh extent of the difficulties, struggle, and inconveniences that welcomed unsuspecting immigrants. The tight spacing, the high ratio of people per square footage, and the dangerous conditions could not have been underestimated. Today, this issue of inconvenient housing and lifestyles can be circumvented much easier than during the time of the early wave of immigration. This is because more and more immigrants that come here bring with them established credentials and already-perceived statuses that help them find immediate, or at least inevitable stability. In addition to this, a lot of the immigrants are also coming here from the applications of family members that have already settled down with stable living conditions. I connected this with my own family, too. When my mom first came here with her brothers, they had to live in trying conditions similar to those described. There were too many people trying to make do in a small apartment, with only one bathroom. In contrast to this, when my uncles came here to America only a few years ago, they did not face any of these hardships. They stayed with us and were spared the burden of finding somewhere to stay, as they received a kind of help that my mother did not have, since she was one of the first in her family to come here.

On a separate note, it is always interesting to see how immigrants come to America and how they choose to settle down. Neighborhoods sort of just spring up and gradually, but naturally, start to be populated with one dominating culture. Of course, shifts occur constantly as people move in and out, yet there is always an easily perceived pattern in the changes that occur. Suffice to say, immigration and the cultural diversity it brings remains a topic of great wonder and intrigue.

– Nadera Rahman