Anna immigrated to the United States from China. She is now 49 years old and has been in the country for approximately 25 years. Here, she comments all the different kinds of jobs she worked upon arrival in New York City:
I did everything I could get. I first worked in a factory and helped piece together clothes at the sewing machine. The hours were really long and the factory was in a bad shape and they closed it down. Then I got a job taking care of someone’s baby. […] After that, I went to a job search place and they introduced me to a job in Illinois, working in a restaurant. I didn’t want to go away, but I went anyway because the pay was a little bit better. […] I picked up a little English on the way, but I didn’t know enough to talk to anyone else. I remember when I first started out I mixed up the orders a lot. […] I couldn’t take it anymore, so when I came back, […] I sold phone cards on Grand Street.”
