When people think of old immigrants coming to America, they consider the Irish, English, German, and Dutch, escaping political unrest, famine, and religious persecution in hopes of a better life. However, after the publication of Jacob Riis’ photo journal How the Other Half Lives, this notion of a better life in America was reevaluated. Immigrants had no “access to steam heat, hot running water, and private toilets” (Foner 43), and twenty-five percent of them slept in a room with five or more other people. Today’s newcomers endure similar housing conditions, living in crowded illegal rooms with no sink or toilet (60). Nancy Foner rigorously examines these similar living conditions in Chapter Two of From Ellis Island to JFK, but she also uncovers a new trend in immigrant living conditions. One of the most interesting aspects of this week’s reading was that “today’s arrivals [are] diverse in terms of class, but they [also] come from countries all over the globe” (37). Moreover, “a number of immigrants today have the means to move into the kind of bedroom communities most Americans associate with middle-class suburbia” (55). How has this new trend come about? Will it help dispel the negative view natives have towards newcomers?
Today’s immigrants—like those who came before them—live “near friends, relatives, and compatriots who speak the same language, share the same customs, and help them find housing and work and to learn the ropes in New York” (39). The only difference is that today’s immigrants have more established liaisons, with higher-paying jobs, American-born children, and more connections. That is why suburbia is often a “first stop for immigrants rather than their eventual destination” (55), giving many neighborhoods a “distinct ethnic flavor” (67). Furthermore, today’s immigrants arrive with advanced degrees and a reasonable amount of money. This enables them to “settle in predominately white suburbs that are more affluent and generally safer” (56) than the tenements in which immigrants of the previous century were known to reside. However, will this new housing trend help oust the view natives have towards newcomers? Unfortunately, I doubt it. Since these new immigrants are now arriving with degrees and startup money, they are able to compete for the same jobs as their native middle-class counterparts, instead of being trapped in the menial jobs that immigrants in Jacob Riis’ era were forced to take.
