1898 to 1930. A period where war and destruction is on everyone's mind. Stories of death and tragedy taint every newspaper published. And back home the economy continually struggles, forcing everyone to change their lifestyle, for better or for worse. The thing about wars, they force people to move, reposition, immigrate. Where do these people want to go? The best, possible opportunity available to them currently. America. It makes sense, but on top of our own problems, immigration is a thing the people just didn't like the idea of. So what do we do, we compromise. Pass laws so that only a certain number of immigrants can come to America from each country. And at some point, even cut it off completely. But just like any major political discussion there are people for and there are people against. At the start of the the 20th century, the american population was 76,212,168 ,and about 20% of the population was not american born. We had the roaring twenties. Lot's of partying, lots of fun, and lots of help to the economy.
This essay by social worker and policy maker Grace Abbott describes how difficult it was for immigrants to find steady employment in 1920's Chicago.
"The immigrant man finds himself much handicapped when he tries to obtain work in the country in which he has been led to believe work is most abundant. In the first place, because of his ignorance of English and consequent inability to give or receive directions he cannot work without work without an interpreter. Interpreter's can be profitably employed only when large groups of immigrants work together. Such groups are employed by the foundries at the dock yards, in mines, on railroad, car-line and building construction, in the harvest fields, in ice and lumber camps, and other similar kinds of work. Much of this work is seasonal and is located at a great distance from the city." This excerpt was written by Grace Abbott in 1908. Talking about how hard and unfair an immigrant workers life is. They dream of coming to america only to be treated with little to no dignity and respect. Given the worst jobs and the worst living conditions etc. She feels that just because they don't know how things work yet and haven't learned a totally new foreign language they're looked down upon. Early 20th century immigration was flourishing and more immigrants than ever were traveling to America. However that completely changed in 1914... the start of WWI. Photo 1 The slums of New York City. a place well known by the people living off minimum wage, most of which immigrants. Very over crowded and heavily populated... and polluted. this photo shows just how many articles of clothing need drying in such a small space. Remember its not like everyone owned a ton of outfits too. Photo 2 I really felt this directly related back to the document above. This photo shows Filipino worker's tending to crops in California. Farming jobs earned very little money, hence why these type of jobs were available and filled by foreigners. Photo 3 This photo shows more of what home life looked like for that of an immigrant. An Italian immigrant woman working from her home in New York City, 1912. You can see 3 children that she's also probably responsible for. Notice how there is not very much furniture or things to occupy the room, instead there is clothes and material spread everywhere. |