Immigrant Life
The reasons these new immigrants made the journey to America included:
- Escaping religious, racial, and political persecution
- Seeking relief from a lack of economic opportunity
- Famine in their homelands
- Contract labor agreements offered by recruiting agents
- Free or cheap farmland
- Many immigrants arrived without family and settled in the ethnic neighborhoods populated by their fellow countrymen. Here they could converse in their native tongue, practice their religion, and take part in cultural celebrations that helped ease the loneliness.
- Often life was not easy. Most industries offered hazardous conditions and very low wages. Urban housing was overcrowded and unsanitary. Many found it very difficult to accept.
"I came to America because I heard the streets were paved with gold. When I got here, found out three things: First, the streets weren't paved with gold; second, they weren't paved at all: and third, I was expected to pave them."