Sarah Osorio 802 Essays - Demography, Geography Of The United States

Sarah Osorio 802 Immigration In the 1800's, there was a new wave of immigration that changed people's lives forever. Some for the better and some for the worst. They faced many difficulties on their journey to America. For example, if you weren't rich, you had to sit in the worst possible part of the ship in which you were coming, called steerage. Once here, you had to pass inspection to be let into America, and if you didn't pass you would be sent back to your country. Also, without family or a job, it would be difficult to live in the U.S., because you had no source of income or support. In the mid and late 1800's, there was a group of immigrants that we now know as "old immigrants". Most of them came from England, Germany, Ireland, and the countries in Scandinavia. The only Irish immigrants that chose to settle in rural areas, and become farmers or skilled workers instead, were the Roman Catholics. From about 1800-1860, immigrants from southern and eastern Europe came to America, and these were known as the "new immigrants". More than 5 million Czechs, Italians, Greeks, Hungarians, Poles, Russians, and Slovaks came to the U.S. for freedom and opportunity. Immigrants in the 1800's faced many hard times when coming to America, all so that they could have more freedom and better chances for them and their whole family. Most immigrants that traveled to America rode in the steerage of the ship. Which is the lowest point in the boat in which you could ride. Tickets to ride in the steerage were the least expensive, but since the immigrants were mostly poor, they were still pricey to them. The average steerage ticket costed about $30, depending on where you were coming from. The steerage of the ship was very uncomfortable, they were also hot and crowded since as many as 2,000 people could fit in there (http://www.ohranger.com/ellis-island/immigration-journey). They often slept in bunks that were stacked on top of each other, and the waves and crashing made some people on the boat seasick. Whatever symptoms they suffered from were dealt with in the area in which they were sleeping. Whether it was nausea or an upset stomach, everyone in the steerage section had to witness what the other passengers were suffering. Some passengers even died from illnesses they caught on the boat, it was common that the y died from diseases like typhus and yellow fever. The next part of their journey was getting through inspection at the immigration center depending on their race and financial status. Part of their inspection was questions about their name, their past health, and whether they had relatives in the United States already. Immigrants needed about $25.00 to enter the United States. This was difficult because if they had a disease that was incurable then, they would either be sent to the hospital, back to their country, or kept quarantined for lesser illness . Ellis Island was the busiest immigration center in the east coast. Less than 2% of people that came to Ellis Island weren't allowed into America. Immigrants that were coming to America from Asia entered through Angel Island. Immigrants were expected by American society to learn a new language, and find a new home and job if they wanted to survive and fit in, in America. It helped them if they already had family in the US because they would have someone to help them with all the responsibilities that came with living here, such as finding a job and home. When an immigrant came to America, they usually moved into neighborhoods with people from the same country as them. These were called immigrant neighborhoods. This allowed them to speak the same language and follow the same customs as they did in their own country, so it felt a little more like home, and not so much like it was a whole new beginning. A lot of these immigrants would become criminals because of the ease of making money through crime. It seemed that every nationality would organize a group that would control the crime in their particular neighborhoods. However, there were just as many immigrants that would create