In chapter two of From Ellis Island to JFK, Nancy Foner sets down certain distinctions between the new wave immigrants, and those of the first wave. The living conditions were much worse for immigrants who came before the 20th century, than they are for those who come today and who came in the 1900s. First wave immigrants tried to live in Manhattan, where most of the jobs were, as the subway system didn’t exist until the early 1900s and it took a while for it to become efficient. Neighborhoods were racially homogenous, and a Jewish person straying into an Italian neighborhood could have turned into a very ugly situation. Today, many such ethnic neighborhoods still exist, many more than Foner acknowledges. However, in general, today’s New York City neighborhoods are far more diverse than ever prior, and the homogenous ghettos of the past are all but gone. The heavily ethnic neighborhoods today are often dominated by a couple of races, not just one, and there is constant change in the demographics of every neighborhood, as Joe Salvo clearly proved to us in his talk back in January.
The tenements that immigrants inhabited were described as being unfit to support satisfactory living conditions. Our tour of the LES Tenement Museum is clear proof of this. There was no electricity, no plumbing, and very little space. Bathrooms and water pumps were outside, and they were shared by many people. Moving out of the tenements and into another borough was unthinkable, as the commute to work would be all but impossible. Hence, immigrant families had to live with what they had, and hope for better times. These “better times” did come, for 1920s families had electricity, running water, and bathrooms indoors. Unfortunately, the tenements were still very crowded and they were shut down, only to be replaced by the projects, which are infamous today for being the worst neighborhoods of New York City.
What is truly amazing is Foner’s claim that some immigrant families live in worse conditions today than did first wave immigrants who lived in the early tenements. How can it be so that in such a technologically advanced era, life in a city as huge and as well-known as New York can be so tough? Foner explains that nowadays, many immigrants lead lower middle class to middle class lives right off the bat, so why can’t this be universal. Are we truly incapable of providing satisfactory conditions for all immigrants in NYC, or are we simply not willing enough, or even unwilling to help them?
