Foner’s chapter contrasting old and new immigrants was really interesting. The way she describes the old immigrants (poor and wretched) are the way I imagined most immigrants today. I didn’t realize that today most immigrants are from professional and middle class. Foner was right when she said that just because the immigrants come from poor and uneducated nations, it doesn’t mean they themselves are poor and uneducated.
I didn’t realize it but most immigrants have college degrees and skillful expertise. But if a lot of them have these college degrees, then why do they take unskilled jobs like working in factories, taxi driver, supermarkets, etc.? Is it because they don’t speak the language? Or are they illegal immigrants and don’t have papers?
This chapter taught me a LOT about illegal immigrants. I honestly had no idea that most illegal immigrants were actually more educated/skilled than the legal immigrants! If they were really so much better than the legal immigrants, then why don’t we just let them in legally? Or if it’s because there’s no room, then we should let them in instead of the uneducated legal immigrants.
I never realized how easy it was and how many ways there are to sneak into the country. I naively thought illegal immigrants snuck over the border, or as stowaways on ships. I didn’t know that the most common way was to get a temporary visa and never go back when it expired. Or that you could forge papers or take someone else’s passport.
It’s crazy how much things changed regarding the trip over to America. The journey immigrants went through back then was so dangerous and so long. Many people didn’t make it and died before America- they came under such inhumane conditions! Now it is so easy- you get on a nice, comfortable plane in your normal clothes, and make it to America within a few hours, and under humane conditions, too.
Foner mentioned that sometimes families would separate and come in “chain migration”- one half came first and sent for the other. But when Ainbinder described the types of separation, I was shocked. I can’t imagine a mother leaving her four year old son alone in her home country. Who took care of the child? What if they weren’t reunited?
I liked reading about the Irish potato blight from the immigrant’s standpoint of how it affected them. Reading about the immigrants’ personal stories was much more meaningful than looking at charts with numbers. I learned about the potato blight before, but it never seemed like such a big deal. Reading about how dependent the Irish were on potatoes was crazy. I can’t imagine eating 14 pounds of potatoes a day, and eating nothing but potatoes. How did they manage to be day laborers and do all that work eating nothing but potatoes? Reading about the starvation and disease was awful.
I felt so bad for the little Italian children who were sold to play music on the street. I hate the padroni! How could they abuse the small Italian children? And are those the same padroni that helped immigrants get work, but basically took all their money while visiting the immigrants at work and threatening them with guns? I really don’t like them.
