What stood out to me most was a statement Foner made early on in the chapter, claiming that, in regards to previous waves of immigrants and the current one, the differences outweigh the similarities. The reasons given are that many immigrants now arrive with more occupational/ educational variety (as opposed to the poor, uneducated laborers of the past), the city is more receptive of immigrants, and the racial/ethnic structure of the city is different than it was in the past. The differences are inarguable, however does this necessarily imply a positive change in the path immigrants take to become American? While there is no doubt that immigrants have better conditions than they would’ve in past decades, I don’t think the ‘American Dream’ was necessarily made more attainable for many.
In the past, most immigrants came with little money and little education/literacy. Similarly, in the later decades of the century (c. 1990s), 1/5 of immigrants had less than a 9th grade education. The first difference Foner mentioned was more occupational/educational variety. While 1/5 of immigrants may struggle, ¼ of male immigrants and 1/3 of females now come over to America as professionals; they immigrate to the US with monetary stability, college degrees, and a set of skills that qualify them for careers in their new country. Foner brings up Asians in particular, who typically come with tens of thousands in savings. Immigrant used to be synonymous with uneducated, poverty-stricken, and somebody who had to struggle. Based on the data cited from 1990s, these equivocations are clearly no longer true. As a reader, I asked myself: does this mean it is easier for immigrants today to come over to achieve the “American Dream?”
I don’t think you can necessarily compare the uneducated Italian and Jewish laborers of the early 1900s with the Filipino and Indian doctors in the 1990s. Instead, I looked at that 1/5—the uneducated percentage who more than likely arrived with little more than what was on their backs (if anything more at all). NYC has the largest income gap nationally, not just between rich and poor but also between the rich and the middle-class. Foner counters the argument that NYC is no longer as welcome to blue-collar workers (jobs that these 1/5-immigrants would take) by saying that the expanding economy includes the lesser educated immigrants because more professionals (lawyers, stockbrokers, bankers, etc) leads to more employment opportunities to support the white-collar workers (janitors, cleaners, child-care providers, etc). This counter argument, however, does not reconcile the rigid gap between socio-economic standings. With the current recession, it can be said that the gap is only widening; essentially, there is no upward mobility for those stuck in these “supporting” jobs, and a recent article in the NYTimes concluded that children of lesser-educated working-class parents tend to, more often than not, not be able to overcome this gap. So is it really easier for immigrants today to come over with nothing and make something for themselves in America? Personally, I don’t think so.
