As we have learned in multiple history classes, when immigrants first came to the United States in last century, they lived in abominable conditions. In Five Points by Tyler Anbinder, it gives the Old Brewery as an example of how filthy, unhealthy and dangerous the living conditions were. “”Fights were of almost constant occurrence, and there was scarcely an hour of the day or night when drunken orgies were not in progress.” While this is more than slightly facetious, this nevertheless shows the squalor of the living conditions that immigrants were forced to live in when then came to the land “paved with gold.” It was not until this century that immigrants could afford to live up to the standards of the middle class. What was surprising is that even today, people live in horrible conditions, although they are not nearly as prevalent as they once were.
Now most of the immigrants that come are no longer stuffed into homogenous, overcrowded slums. They are more spread out throughout the suburbs surrounding New York City, either in Long Island or New Jersey. These new immigrants, like I said in my previous post, are generally more educated. They are very different from their predecessors. Unfortunately, the view of immigrants is still the same. Hopefully, within a few years or decades, the view towards immigrants will become more tolerant and up-to-date.
What I noticed throughout these readings is that while no two waves are like one another, the view towards them is the same; they are not like us, they do not speak our language, they are separate from us and they do not belong. What I do not understand is: a lot of the people that are here are immigrants. Many were part of the wave before this one. How can they be intolerant of the newest immigrants, when they just got off the boat in the last generation? This must be a continuing trend, as intolerance of immigrants is still here today. Is it possible to end this trend?
