A prevalent theme in this week’s readings is that legends about the past wave of immigrants have colored the way today’s immigrants are perceived. These preconceived notions entice native-born Americans to characterize immigrants the same way their ancestors did a century ago. For example, a common misconception about immigrants in the early twentieth century was that many newcomers did not have the proper skill sets and work ethic to join the American labor force. But evidence suggests that misconceptions like this one are not the reality, and that there are pronounced differences between immigrants of new and immigrants of old.
Foner notes that there are prevailing similarities between immigrants of past and present. She sheds light upon the fact that unsafe sweatshops that pervaded the Lower East Side in the early 1900’s still exist in Chinatown. She illuminates the many new immigrants who are low skilled and poor, and as result take the worst of jobs that pay low wages and require long hours. Ethnic businesses are even more common today in New York City than they were 100 years ago. Nevertheless, Foner argues that the differences should outweigh the similarities for different reasons, but one of the primary reasons is that immigrants arrive more highly educated and with more developed skills than they did a century ago. In my opinion, the evidence proves the validity of Foner’s argument, leading me to agree with her belief that immigrants of new are far different from immigrants from the past.
Many numbers illustrate that immigrants have arrived with a wider range of skills and higher level of education. New York City’s shift to a service sector economy has allowed immigrants to work as doctors, lawyers, or bankers instead of working the low level jobs that were typical of a 19th century immigrant. One can confirm this through the eye test by recognizing the large number of doctors, engineers, and computer scientists that come from immigrant families. The fact that more immigrants have arrived with a command of the English language, something that was not common amongst immigrants at the end of the 19th century, delineates this new trend of educated immigrants. Even the immigrants who are less educated have the skills necessary to work a wide variety of jobs such as messengers, repair services, or even in restaurants. Rather than being automatically forced to start at the lowest rung of society, immigrants have the opportunity to be incorporated into the New York City labor market based on their skills, abilities, and preferences instead of ethnicity or race. In fact, if their skills permit it, immigrants can even arrive here and join the same economic class they were associated with in their countries of origin. These factors are a far cry from the immigrants of old, and they help in truly distinguishing between the old immigrants and the new ones. Even if all immigrants may seem the same to some close-minded Americans, they must realize and accept these changes in the immigrant dynamic.
