Essay On Immigration To America

Imagine being forced out of your home by a war only to have to travel on a long journey to a completely new place because you heard it was safe there. For many immigrants, this was a reality. While not every immigrant came to America because they were forced out of their homes, some did. Others came to America for the opportunities that they were promised. Work was a major pulling factor, in the early 1900s, when America was still growing, jobs became rapidly available and many immigrants used this as an opportunity to come and start a new life. However promising America seemed, it was definitely a strenuous journey for most as they were forced to travel by boat with lots of other immigrants for extended periods of time, all with the same goal

Many of these xenophobic Americans ridiculed immigrants and saw them as lesser human beings because of their ways of life. Some of these Americans even claimed that immigrants were stealing all of their jobs, however most jobs taken by immigrants were those that most people wouldn’t want to do, labor intense, lowing paying jobs. Another problem area for new immigrants was housing. Most immigrants lived in dumbbell tenements when they arrived in America, they were not forced to but they often stayed together as this made them feel the safest and most secure. These tenements were horrible excuses for living spaces. From overcrowded, cramped rooms to dozens of fire hazards within the wooden structures, safety or comfortability was obviously not in the minds of the building owners. With these small confined areas also came disease and sickness, if one person in the building was infected with something, that usually meant that everyone would soon be infected as well. These, along with various other problems, made living a nightmare for most