The living conditions the immigrants of the 1900’s faced did not surprise me. With the flood of immigrants coming to America starting a-new, they needed some place affordable to live. Small, overcrowded, unsanitary tenements were the answer to this; maybe not a first choice, but the only choice they had. I was surprised, however, by the fact that immigrants today have to live in places that aren’t much better than the tenements of the 1900’s. You would think that in today’s day and age places like this would be considered unacceptable living spaces, the immigrants would be able to find a more comfortable place, or the landlords would have the means to update and keep the buildings and apartments in good condition. The standard of living is much higher today than it was decades ago, so why do these problems still exist and are maybe even worse?
I think it has something to do with discrimination or prejudices against immigrants, something that we talked about a little bit last class. Immigrants certainly don’t have enough money to come and start out in a nice house, and people look down upon them for that reason, and for coming in and taking jobs. Landlords may be able to update their living spaces and keep them sanitary, but because they don’t find it necessary with immigrants they just don’t do it. And even if an immigrant family wanted to, and could rent a house in a decent neighborhood, they may have trouble if it is an all white neighborhood and they are, say, Mexican. They have to go where they will be accepted and will be able to afford living. So it doesn’t surprise me that today ethnic clustering is still happening. It’s the way that people can come, get their start, and feel comfortable where they are living, even if the conditions aren’t that great.
But this ethnic clustering has its negative sides that cause immigrants to search for another place to live where the neighborhood offers better public schools, higher quality housing, and safer streets. Foner mentioned that today immigrants are settling less inside the city itself and more in the counties that border the city, semi-suburban and even suburban communities. I wonder if this want and need for a better place to live has something to do with this. Once one group finds a more suitable place to live, the communities start to form outside of the city. Will it continue this way until communities start to form even further out of the city? I don’t think so because immigrants come for the reason to make a living and just starting out gets harder and harder the further you go out of the city.
