From The Peopling of New York City
Health was of little concern to Italian Americans. Their main goal was to get a job, make money, and then send money back to their family in Italy. Italian Americans usually ended up living in crowded Italian neighborhoods. Most Italian immigrants lived with friends or family members in tenements. Italian men saw a house as a place to sleep not a place to stay. Italian immigrants planned on working most of the day and going back to their homes to shower, eat and sleep. Seeing how Italian immigrants didn’t plan on spending much time in the home they took little care of their homes. These conditions greatly affected the Italian women who migrated to America and worked at home. Having to work at home these women had no escape from the horrible conditions of tenement life.
The tenements Italian Americans lived in were no different from the tenements other immigrants lived in. These tenements were cramped, poorly lit, under ventilated, and had no indoor plumbing. Tenements were known as a place where everyone can catch cholera, typhus and tuberculosis. Jacob Riis exposed the conditions of tenements in his book How the Other Half Lives. “In a room not thirteen feet either way slept twelve men and women, two or three in bucks set in a sort of alcove, the rest on the floor. A kerosene lamp burned dimly in the fearful atmosphere, probably to guide other and later arrivals to their beds, for it was only just past midnight.”-Riis, How the Other Half Lives. [1]
Life in Italy was similar to tenement life with the major expectation that in Italy they could leave the house for fresh air and sunlight. In Italy, poor Italian families would live in huts and sleep on dirt floor. However since the Italians cities were not as industrialized as New York was Italian families could always escape their homes by simply stepping outside to enjoy nature. [2]
The workplace for many Italian Americans was just as unhealthy as their homes. Those who worked as construction workers building roads and bridge exposed themselves to many harmful air pollutants. Those who build canals and helped built the New York City subway lines would eat their meals without washing the dirt off their hands.
Overall the health of Italian immigrants was the same as all immigrants. Tenement life exposed immigrants to many diseases and unsafe housing condition. For Italian immigrants work didn’t always provide and escape from the poor health conditions.
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