Coming to America: Chapter 7 AND 8!!!

Chapter 7 and 8-Coming to America

During the years 1880-1920, 4.1 Italians had immigrated to the U.S. Italians certainly tended to return back to their home country after saving up a good amount of money and getting what they wanted from here and then coming back to the U.S after a certain amount of years. They also did temporary migration to other countries and experienced it beforehand coming to the United States. Most of the Italians coming in were skilled artisans as well as many intellectuals coming in which is very surprising because as I have been reading the past couple of chapters, immigrants usually come in with no money, education or skills and build it once they are working here with the belief that anything is possible in America. Italian painters and sculptors also contributed to plastic art (which I studied in Art History course and is pretty cool). Immigrants were pretty smart and had introduced new crops and techniques since they were doing agriculture in California! Priests and political exiles also came to America along with many intellectual people of Italy. The majority of them were doing manual labor though and most were Catholics. I’ve actually never heard of this term, padroni was known as finding jobs through ethnic labor contractors, which I can imagine is a lot easier for them. Some were poor due to the low wages they earned and poor neighborhoods they resided in. They lived in many bad neighborhoods and that is probably the reason why many of them are involved in crimes.  According to some people…crime is a means to upward social mobility which is very disheartening and frightening to read that people think that only crime will solve their social and economic issues and status within American society. For the Arabs, I definitely agreed with Rogers on the point being made that many think the term Arab means Muslim when it really doesn’t because there are indeed Christian Arabs and Muslim Arabs. I hadn’t known that a great portion of Arabs were immigrating into New York City mainly. Some were fortunate to open their own businesses while others were Arab peddlers. I was very shocked to learn that only two mosques were open before the 1930s! Today, we have hundreds if not thousands of mosques built all over the United States as well as pretty much every country in the world!  Many Armenians do in fact live in Fresno to this day. I was very surprised to learn that 26 different European ethnic groups immigrated into the U.S…there’s a lot of multiculturalism as one could tell. They settled in states near factories and manufacturing at the time. These were people to whom things happened instead of people who caused things to happen according to an author, which I can certainly agree with. All Poles who came here spoke Polish as a mother tongue and were Roman Catholics. They settled into cities with economic motives. Eastern European Jews seriously insisted on staying in the U.S which is not surprising for me because once people adjust and be comfortable with American society, they tend to stay longer and not want to go back to the issues they were facing. I was in dismay while I read the Triangle Shirt Waist Fire in 1911!!! I can’t even imagine witnessing people doing that or doing that myself, it’s so absurd!

Coming to America: Chapter 6

Chapter 6- Pioneers of the Century of Immigration: Irish, Germans, and Scandinavians

Period between 1812 and 1924. The main difference between the immigrants that is noted in this chapter is as follows, immigrants were either rural or urban depending on the years they immigrated into the United States. Some of these immigrants’ occupations had changed dramatically and that was due to the American economy and society like it is today when the economy is down…many people go back into school and switch majors so they may easily find a better job opportunity that fits their financial needs. Immigration numbers dramatically decreased, although there were many immigrants, so this was definitely miscounted and the numbers don’t represent the correct amount of people coming in and out. Many people were not counted for depending on the route they took to come to the U.S., while others it was chain migration, tourist visas, coming back and forth, and illegal immigration. Better transportation had greatly affected immigration because it was now quicker to emigrate large groups of people from one place to another. Many were migrating from Asia, Many Irish people also not due to the Famine, which is most people think that was the reasoning behind it, but rather because Ireland lost an innumerable amount of people in their population.  Some people did not marry or bear children, so the population was not increasingly growing as expected. 1/12 Irish would return back to their home which quite frankly is not surprising because they’ve settled and worked hard for a better life here in the U.S. The U.S also has better opportunities and standard of living is significantly higher than most countries. The British Passenger Acts had made it a lot cheaper to migrate to Canada than it was to the U.S so that had gotten many people to migrate there instead. As I viewed the table of Immigrants from Ireland on pg. 129, I was shocked to see how the percentage of total immigration decreased dramatically within ten year increments. After the war, which is in the year of 1812, Irish people did not immigrate in large family groups. Many of the Irish were living in an urban environment; they certainly did not have the skills or money to own their own farm or be prepared to work in the American agriculture here in the U.S. Most were not educated and did not know the trade. It was very difficult for them to adjust and find skills that would contribute the American society after immigrating here. The workers were pretty much in the bottom of society. Germans had come for economic reasons which wasn’t surprising to tell you the truth, nor were they proud in the German achievements back home and sought to find a way to reach America. Modernization definitely benefited them at this time and many women were housewives who were expected to cook, clean and look after the kids. Cholera had killed the poorest immigrants before even arriving to their destination. These people were very close to the Church and held closely their ideologies, traditions and religion. Norwegians came due to land hunger and population pressures as well as religious intolerance in Norwegian which is really outrageous and it was a great decision for them to move into the U.S and escape those issues.

Chapter 5-Ethnicity and Race in American Life

Chapter 5-Ethnicity and Race in American Life

After reading this particular chapter, I was definitely questioning the true meaning of being American? Is it having Thanksgiving every October or being patriotic to the United States or is social values, attitudes, beliefs and norms that we all believe in? Does living the American Dream make you American or having the legal citizenship? For every person, the definition may change upon the way they think of ethnicity and self-identity in America. I mean America is indeed a place where one could be what they want, you could change yourself, forget about your own culture/ background to try to fit into the American culture. But what is the American culture…isn’t it a mixture of different immigrants, races, ethnicities and cultures all coming together. For me personally, I was born and raised in America but don’t consider myself to be American. I hold onto my own culture and family background and am proud to come from where I do. It’s frightening to know that people are willing to let go of their own culture and think it’s unacceptable to be something other than American once you are here in the United States. Being born in the United States could possibly mean being American to some people. Race is a very controversial issue for many people because some people are discriminated against depending on their skin color or ethnicity, while others are biracial and cannot identify themselves clearly. This happens a lot when someone is filling out a job application or survey that requires you to put down your race in order to gather statistics. English culture probably consists of knowing the English language fluently, being an American citizen, knowing the U.S law (amendments, constitution, democracy), freedom of speech since the U.S is known for allowing people to speak their mind and have their own beliefs and probably even eating American food and participating in cultural things that could perhaps be patriotic and also understanding the history of the United States. The U.S has been involved in way too many wars with various countries, has military all over the world which his really unnecessary, oppressed many people through centuries and discriminated against pretty much every race and ethnicity out there. The U.S has discriminated against many people which is nothing to be proud of. Coming here to America, millions of people change their personal habits and traditions in order to conform to society while people from older generations tend to understand the importance of one’s own values, religion, beliefs because that’s how one self identifies and hold onto that for as long as they can. We tend to be closer to people with the same culture, beliefs and even ethnicity as ourselves because they are one of us and we trust them. It’s hard to trust people from other communities and that’s what some people are afraid of. But living here in the United States for as long as I have, I’ve come to love the Golden Rule of respecting and getting to know your own neighbor. We pass many people on a daily basis without speaking or even doing the smallest gesture such as smiling, but living here I’ve come to understand that it’s good to be in contact with people you live with and go to school or work with. Social life has dramatically changed through the decades as well both positively and negatively.

Chapter 4-Other Europeans in Colonial America

Chapter 4-Other Europeans in Colonial America

Non-English European groups were entering between 17^th-18^th centuries. Before 1790…immigrants entering were a total of around 1 million people. Afro-Americans were 20% of the population. Non-British migrants had settled in the Southern and Middle Atlantic states. The Irish people that are referred to in this chapter are for the most part Protestants. The Germans who had come around 17^th century were skilled minors. These Germans were Protestant, Catholic and Jewish. The push factor for these Germans to migrate here were due to politics and economics.  The living and working conditions were definitely better than that of their home country but once a family member migrated, the family would follow. Some family members were free while others weren’t, so they would save up money to have enough to pay off the contract and be able to live with their families again. Some people also exploited the trade, which I don’t find surprising because you’ll always find good and bad people with right and wrong morals/values they live by. Indentured servitude was also occurring at this time, which I completely understand and would have done myself living in that time period. It’s very hard to save up money for transportation, food clothes etc. but with this little exchange, it would help them immigrate more easily and allow them the opportunity to pay off their debt by working a couple of years. This exchange was definitely good both for the person who was paying as well as the immigrant. They made money while an immigrant had the opportunity to move and start a new life in fact…this went on until about 1830 which was somewhat surprising that it went for as long as it did! The Scotch Irish had settled into states such as Pennsylvania because they planned to have their own land perhaps since the land policies were easily controlled and a great deal to say the least. Many of these Scotch Irish came in as indentured Servants and worked for years and years until they worked their way up and were finally freed and not in debt so begin their own American life. The Scotch Irish people were skilled craftsmen… some prospered while others did not. Their ethnic community was not as close as that of the Germans.  They acculturated and tried to fit into the everyday social life and norms/expectations of the American life. What I was just very fascinated by was when I had read that involuntary migration was practiced by the Scottish and British governments…I have never heard of such a thing in the past! Apparently religious and political dissenters and criminals were deported to America. I find this funny because many people come to America with the hopes of reaching the American dream and having more opportunities to better their lives in America…which you would think is a good thing. But those governments deported them because they hadn’t wanted to deal with the consequences of having criminals and it was a disgrace and dishonor to be kicked out of your own home country I’m sure!!!

Chapter 3-Slavery and Immigrants from Africa

Chapter 3-Slavery and Immigrants from Africa

I was surprised to learn that more than 9 million of people were being transported into the new world.  People were involved in this trade because they had wanted to make profit…capitalist enterprise. A slave-based industry such that of cane sugar has contributed and affected economies all over the world enormously! Slavery began in each North American colony including Canada but only ended up being mainly in the southern colonies later on. Immigration definitely increased and became more well-known as slaves were entering the United States. During colonial period…1/5 people was either African American or a descendent of one…there were some staggering numbers about African American ancestry and descendants of white folks which I found very fascinating to know. African slave trade went on for four centuries…I mean that’s a pretty long time for something very inhumane and unjust to continue occurring without a stop to it. People were being taken advantage of and exploited and insulted in many different levels. The plantations were in demand of labor and growing cash export crops and that is how the slave trade positively attributed to the economic issues within society. I was very saddened to read all of the disturbing details about the slave trade within this chapter along with other books I’ve read in the past. I mean these slaves in the New World were doing hard physical and dangerous labor for little to no money most of the time. Long hours using difficult tools and the one of the things that helped them through was singing while they were out on the plantations. Many people misinterpreted and assumed they were very satisfied with their lives when it was the complete opposite filled with depression, misery and trying so hard to hold onto their faith. They wore very cheap and uncomfortable clothes for long periods of time and lived in very filthy huts clumped together. There was a lot of sickness, diseases, dirt etc. I can’t even fathom the idea of this and I cannot even imagine what they must have endured for all of those years and there’s nothing that could repay the years in their life that they lost! Mind you many of these women were also being raped and molested since they were the slaves and had to follow orders of their master/owner of the plantations. This is a very crude, unbelievable and unjust issue that occurred and we as a nation must learn and never allow history to repeat itself.