IMMIGRATION AND THE AMERICAN DREAM

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IMMIGRATION AND THE AMERICAN DREAM
Once I thought to write a history of the
immigrants in America. Then I discovered that the
immigrants were American history. Oscar
Handlin, The Uprooted
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NEWS FROM THE NEW WORLD
America was in everybodys mouth. Businessmen
talked of it over their accounts the market
women made up their quarrels that they might
discuss it from stall to stall people who had
relatives in the famous land went around reading
their letters for the enlightenment of less
fortunate folkchildren played at emigrating old
folks shook their heads over the evening fire and
prophesied no good for those who braved the
terrors of the sea and the foreign goal beyond
it all talked of it, but scarcely anyone knew
one true fact about this magic land. Mary
Antin
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Brochure distributed in Norway by a steamship
company, encouraging Norwegians to emigrate to
America
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AN ITALIAN IMMIGRANT I knew of only one person
who had gone from our small city to North
America. He came to visit our village when I was
a boy, and his visit left certain distinct
impressions upon my mind. He had lived in America
for several yearsWhen he finally came back I was
much impressed. He could not speak our dialect
any more. What little of the language he spoke
was the pure Italian, which he had learned in
America. I recall also his purple, showy necktie,
and a stickpin with brilliants. What impressed me
most of all was the white collar which he wore.
These things were great luxuries in our town,
worn only by the well-to-do, and not by the
common folks, to which he belonged.
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Oscar Handlin Without reserves of any kind these
people were helpless in the face of crisis. The
year the crops failed there was famine. Then the
alternative to flight was death by starvation. In
awe the peasant saw his fields barren, yielding
nothing to sell, nothing to eat. He looked up and
saw the emptiness of his neighbors lands, of the
whole villageHe would leave now, escape. Give up
this abusive land that his fathers never really
masteredHe would become a stranger on the way,
pack on back, lead wife and children toward some
other destiny. For all about was evidence of the
consequences of staying. Any alternative was
better.
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MARY ANTIN DESCRIBES SOME OF THE PUSH FACTORS
It was not easy to live (in the Pale), with such
bitter competition as the congestion of
population made inevitableOutside the Pale a Jew
could only go to certain designated localities,
on payment of prohibitive fees, augmented by a
constant stream of bribes and even then he lived
at the mercy of the local chief of police.

Somebody would start up that lie about murdering
Christian children, and the stupid peasants would
get mad about it, and fill themselves with vodka,
and set out to kill the Jews. They attacked them
with knives and clubs and scythes and axes,
killed or tortured them, and burned their houses.
This was called a pogrom. People who saw such
things never smiled any more, no matter how long
they lived.
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MARY ANTIN There was an elation, a hint of
triumph, such as had never been in my fathers
letters before. I cannot tell how I knew it. I
felt a stirring, a straining in my fathers
letter. It was there, even though my mother
stumbled over the strange words, even though she
cried, as women will when somebody is going away.
My father was inspired by a vision. He saw
somethinghe promised us something. It was this
America. And America became my dream.
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An Italian immigrant remembers traveling in
steerage All us poor people had to go down
through a hole to the bottom of the ship. There
was a big dark room down there with rows of
wooden shelves all around where we were going to
sleepthe Italian, the German, the Polish, the
Swede, the Frenchevery kindThe girls and women
and the men had to sleep all together in the same
room. The men and girls had to sleep even in the
same bed with only those little half-boards up
between to keep us from rolling together.
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Then one day we could see the land! My and my
paesani stood and watched the hills and the land
come nearer. Other poor people, dressed in their
best clothes and loaded down with bundles,
crowded around. America! The country where
everyone could find work! Where wages were so
high no one had to go hungry! Where all men were
free and equal and where even the poor could own
land! But now we were so near it seemed too much
to believe. Everyone stood silentlike in a
prayer.
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Ellis Island, established in 1890.
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Health Inspection on Ellis Island
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I CAME TO AMERICA BECAUSE I HEARD THE STREETS
WERE PAVED WITH GOLD. WHEN I GOT HERE I FOUND OUT
THREE THINGS. FIRST, THE STREETS WERE NOT PAVED
WITH GOLD. SECOND, THEY WERENT PAVED AT ALL. AND
THIRD, I WAS EXPECTED TO PAVE THEM.
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Italian Harlem, early 20th century
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• TOOLS OF AMERICANIZATION
• American language, clothing and customs.
• The public schools.
• The settlement houses.

Immigrants gathered at Jane Addams Hull House in
Chicago
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An Italian woman recalls her days at a settlement
house They used to tell us that its not nice to
drink beer, and we must not let the baby do this,
and thisSo after we had about an hour, or an
hour and a half of the preaching, they would pull
up the circle and wed play games together. All
together we played the gamesthe Norwegian, the
German, the English, and me. Then wed have some
cake and coffee and the goodnight song. Pretty
soon they started the classes to teach us poor
people to talk and write in English. The talk of
the people in the settlement house was different
entirely than what I used to hear. I used to love
those American people, and I was listening and
listening how they talked. Thats how I learned
to talk such good EnglishThey had the clubs for
the children too. And after a few years when they
started the kindergarten, my Louie was one of the
first children to go in
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AN IMMIGRANT ON THE PRESSURE TO AMERICANIZE How
unkind, how cruel are the methods sometimes used
in connection with our so-called Americanization
program. Think of our saying to these foreign
peoples, some of whom have been in this country
for perhaps a brief period Forget your native
land, forget your mother tongue, do away with
your inherited customs, put from you as a cloak
all that inheritance and early environment made
you and become in a day an American par
excellence. This was precisely the talk I used to
hear when I first came to this country. Either
become an American citizen or get out, was in
substance the attitude of certain people. But how
was I to choose so suddenly?
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An immigrant reflects on the problem of juvenile
delinquency among immigrant children Is it not
true that, as the immigrant child goes to school
and learns English he becomes estranged from his
parents, becomes disrespectful and causes trouble
in the home and the community? And is it not also
true that as these children get a smattering of
American ideas and ideals they become so
independent as to be uncontrollable? And is it
not this class, and not the immigrant himself,
who fill the juvenile courts and swell the number
of our delinquency cases in the houses of
correction?
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