Chapter 6 of From Ellis Island to JFK focuses on how immigrants lead transnational lives. When on emigrates from his home country and comes to the United States, or any other nation for that matter, there is family left in the country of origin, in the majority of cases. Back in the day, sustaining these ties, as well as keeping up with cultural changes and the news of one’s home country was difficult. Communication was limited to what we have come to call “snail mail”, and not without reason. It would take two weeks for a letter from the U.S. to reach a country on the other side of the world, in some cases longer. Can you imagine how excruciating the wait must have been? Technology has changed all that, as Foner explains, providing many means of rapid, near-instant communication, and all but enabling one to be in two places at once. The options for quick communication are virtually endless: Skype, instant messaging, Facebook, telephone calls, and the list goes on and on and on.

Chapter 7 really goes into the schooling of immigrant children. As is illustrated by the sad story of Celia’s family, many immigrant families had to pull at least some of their kids out of school, to have them work. Generally, the salaries that the parents in the families received didn’t bring in enough money for them to be able to get by, let alone live comfortably. Children had to work from an early age, as we saw in the LES Tenement Museum, where the daughters in the family were working in their early teenage years. Our tour guide told us that some children immigrated here at age 12 and got jobs right away, as that was the minimum age requirement for them to be allowed to have jobs, and they had to help support their families. Those who were lucky enough to be able to go to school were heavily pressed to “Americanize”. Immigrant children were actually watched, yes, watched during school hours as a means of making sure that they wouldn’t do or say anything that is of their native culture or in their native language, respectively. That is absolutely horrific and I’m endlessly thankful that cultural and racial diversity is supported by so many schools and schooling systems across the nation.

Were all of the sacrifices made prior to immigration to the United States and in the first years here worth it for the majority of immigrant families? That is, would a significant number of these families have been better served by remaining in their native countries?