As I was reading Chapter two in From Ellis Island to JFK, I came across the section about old ethnic neighborhoods. One point that piqued my interest was Foner’s claim that slums actually provided some benefits, as unlikely as it may seem, to its immigrant inhabitants. I had never considered that there may be any advantages to living in slums. According to Foner, however, the slums allowed for poor immigrant workers to live near the industrial hub of the city. Although the slums were unsanitary and filthy, they also provided an ethnic community that supported its inhabitants both physically and emotionally. Living in a foreign locale among friends and family enables immigrants to better cope with their ordeals.
Obviously, living in the slums was no picnic. Foner mentions a report that stated that a part of the Lower East Side had a more dense population than Bombay! From the ghastly descriptions of the tenements in New York City, they sound like a scene straight from the books of Charles Dickens. However, in recent times, the standard of living has changed drastically for almost all Americans. Even lower class homes have basic necessities that were rarities in Jacob Riis’ time, such as refrigerators, indoor bathrooms, and even color TVs. With the improved circumstances in America, immigrants are no longer living under horrific conditions, excepting a small minority. Many recent immigrants appear to live on the higher end of the economic spectrum, with relatively many Asian immigrants in particular living in upper class neighborhoods.
Aside from the topic of tenements, in general I think Foner got her point across clearly that although there are certain similarities between the immigrants of old and now, there are some significant differences, specifically where immigrants are settling. Ethnic enclaves are no longer the only places where immigrants choose to live, and more immigrants are moving to suburbs both in and out of New York City and even New York. I see from experience that my own suburban neighborhood has its fair share of immigrants.
