Case Study: Immigrants in New York

1. Case Study: Immigrants in New York

2. Immigrants came in search of the American Dream…… When they arrived in New York for most the reality was very different……..

3. After 1890 most immigrants were forced to live in SLUM or GHETTOS • Slum • part of the city where people live who have low-incomes and often many social problems • Ghetto • poor area of the city where people of a specific ethnic group live

4. Most new immigrants settled in areas what were both slums and ghettos Separate areas of New York where new immigrants settled became known as Little Italy Little Russia Little Poland etc Little Italy, New York

5. To cope with the large number of new immigrants New York developed tenement houses

6. Problems Overcrowding Usually only 1 or 2 rooms per family

7. Problems Overcrowding Most new immigrants had large families

8. Problems Overcrowding

9. Problems Sanitation • Less than half of tenement had running water • Few had bathrooms • Single lavatory in hallway shared by many families • Some only had backyard outhouse

10. Problems Sanitation Apartments had no heating. Running water was only available in the filthy hall. Toilets were in the basement, about 10 floors down from our room. The smell was terrible and in winter we froze. But we froze back in Russia so what’s the difference? At least now we had a dream to aim for.

11. Problems Ventilation • Over a thousand rooms in a tenement block • Over 400 rooms had no window • No fresh air passed through the houses • Many people died from illnesses • No heating • On summer nights some slept on roofs or fire escapes or their • buildings

12. Problems Ventilation Four to six stories high, with four apartments on each floor, they held two or three families in each apartment, all with no elevator or indoor plumbing. We used cesspools and outhouses for sewage. And people just threw their garbage in the street. 500,000 people per square mile living on the Lower East Side got awfully crowded and smelly! In 5 years 32 people in our block had died from breathing problems brought on by the lack of heating and the damp rooms we lived in.

13. Problems Employment After the 1880's jobs were scarce…. Housing conditions were terrible and so were working conditions and that wasn’t surprising. Houses and work places were the same place! It is not unusual to find lots of people, from young children to old people, at work in the dirty rooms, sewing, stitching, making clothes to sell in the market stalls or repairing watches and clocks. Anything that would raise a few dollars.

14. Problems Employment Sorting coffee beans for resale Making clothes

15. Problems Employment Selling bread on the street Trash collectors

16. Problems Employment Construction workers

17. Problems Crime New York was not the only place scarred by the immigrant slums. Slums could be found wherever immigrants settled. With such bad conditions it’s hardly surprising that so many tried to escape by making easy money. Every block had its gambling dens, its prostitutes and its gangsters. Immigrant crime is a threat to the American way of life.

18. Problems Children Kids played on the sidewalks and streets

19. Problems Children • School • Overcrowded and thousands were turned away • School buildings were poorly heated, old and decaying • Special needs of children who spoke foreign languages or had learning disabilities not taken into account

20. Problems Children • Work • More than 100,000 kids worked in factories instead of going to school. • Factories were dark, damp, dangerous and dirty

21. Was it really possible for New Immigrants to achieve their American Dream? "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement….. and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position."