Category Archives: Uncategorized

My parents immigrated to the U.S. from Hong Kong. They still follow Hong Kong news after 30 years via the Hong Kong T.V. channel, even though they are permanent settlers of U.S. and are not discriminated against. Hong Kong still … Continue reading →

After reading the selections from Nancy Foner’s From Ellis Island to JFK, I would like to focus this week’s journal on the topic of standardized testing. Back at the turn of the century, New York began giving scholarships for strong grades on … Continue reading →

For immigrants in NYC, going to school was a very different experience in the early 1900s than the early 2000s because of the different requirements and contexts. For example, it’s hard to imagine how it was normal for 3 elementary … Continue reading →

Many immigrants came over to New York simply to make money. They came here, looked for jobs, worked for a few months or years to save up money, and then returned to their homeland. Italian immigrants were well known for … Continue reading →

Rieder’s Canarsie neighborhod is one of dramatic racial tensions between the white and black communities, although of course there is parsing of the white community to specify Italians and Jewish groups. The white, original community felt very hostile towards the … Continue reading →

In the Spring of 1867, New York City passed the first building codes in an attempt to better tenement conditions. The legislation mandated a variety of new building requirements, including fire escapes, windows in every room (although they did not … Continue reading →

I find the hippies living in East Village in the 1970s similar to the well-off people who went slumming because both of the groups could go back to their middle and upper class statuses and their nice houses after “playing … Continue reading →

The immigrants of the past, while glorified by some, had many hardships that are often forgotten. It is often forgotten that by 1900, “about three-quarters of Manhattan’s residents were tenement dwellers–the newest immigrants being the most likely inhabitants” (Foner 42). … Continue reading →