Like Susan, I was surprised at how accurately Chin seemed to describe the garment industry. After reading it, I asked my parents whether the wages were by the hour or by the piece, and the told me it was by piece. I never realized that whether the Chinese got paid by each piece they made and whether the Latino workers got paid by the hour was dependent on their lifestyle and circumstances. Also, the fact that their lifestyles differed was because of their primary goal in immigrating to New York. Because the Latino workers’ primary goal was to make money to return to their country, many of them did not have families in New York, and so they were able to follow a full work day schedule. Meanwhile, many Chinese immigrants intend to raise a family in New York, and so they need more flexible schedules to take care of their children.
I can’t imagine the working conditions for immigrants back then, especially in Five Points. When we read about the conditions in Ireland last time, I thought it was really terrible that the men had to travel to long distances for long periods of time to look for work. And now, Anbinder says that the same thing also happened in Five Points. It is really sad when families don’t hear from the husband/dad for months at a time, and often, these men either abandoned their family or died from accidents/diseases. And when this happens, it is all up to the woman to support her whole family.
Many of the immigrants around the late 1800s to the early 1900s found jobs in garment industries and other labor jobs. And now as Foner says, in a society that is more service based, and with immigrants that have a more varied range of previous occupations and skill levels, work for more recent immigrants is different than work for the earlier immigrants. Then there is the matter of immigrants replacing old immigrants in certain job areas. This leaves me wondering how things will change for future immigrants. Who’s jobs are they going to replace as the old group moves upward financially? What type of economy will form in New York in the future, and what type of jobs will the immigrants take then?
