Immigration

Dear brother, It’s been four months since I moved to America. My husband Tony and I were shipped from Italy to New York City. It was a pleasant trip because we had enough money to get a nice room to sleep in, and good food to eat. This came in handy because it took up 4 days to get off the boat, because of all the people that were immigrating like us. We decided to move to America for a better economic opportunity, we wanted better jobs than what we had. We have settled into a very small townhouse in the middle of the city. It’s not a pleasant house, and it needs work, but for now it’s a good place to stay. We started looking for jobs the minute we found our house. I found a job as a garment worker; I work 10 hour days, 5 days out of the week. Tony found a job at one of the local cigar factories, and works 16 hour days, 6 days out of the week. Once we get settled into the house, I want to get a position working for a small business because they are finally letting women work in the business force. For now though, I will settle for the money I make and be happy with it. Life in America is better for us because it gives us an opportunity for a better life. We do have more freedom than we did back in Italy, especially me being a woman and having the chance to work and make money. I do like the food in America, I had a cheeseburger on Sunday and it was amazing. Luckily we have many Italian restaurants around where we live, and an Italian grocery store. We have not yet had enough money to get a car, but we have been saving every dollar that we’ve earned that hasn’t gone to rent or food. I am hoping to have a car by next month because I am tired of taking the bus to work. Being an Italian immigrant isn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. Since many can only tell I am an immigrant from my accent, nobody really treats me any differently. It was difficult for me to learn English in order to come here. Luckily I learned English before I came. That made finding a job much easier because I could actually understand what people were saying. Our rent for our house was not high because it is a little house and the people we rent it from are very kind. At work I don’t feel left out because there are many other immigrant workers with me, and we always share about how we came here and what our struggles were. I make three dollars a week at the garment factory. Some days are hard to get through, and others the day is really slow and you would just look around to find something to do or else you wouldn’t get paid. At work there is food available, but it’s not tasty food. So I bring my own food from the house usually. They give us a 10 minute lunch break and then it’s back to work. I know you’re happy with Italy and where you’re at now, but I think you will like America even better. There is so much more to do here, especially for women. You will be taken care of and the benefits of immigration are greatly amazing. You will be able to find good work here, and your children will have an opportunity to finally go to school. If you were to come down tony could put in a word at the cigar factory for you to start working, and I can have your wife working with me if she wanted to. I want you to think of all the opportunities you can have by coming to America, and I want you to know that you will always have a place to stay with us. Miss you and love you Taylor

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[|The Huddled Masses], The statue of liberty is the tallest building in New York. It stands 22 stories high, and it weighs 225 tons. The statue of liberty was a gift from French Republicans who wanted to advance their political cause. [|The New Immigrants], in 1886 334,203 immigrants arrived in the United States. In 1900, 14% of America’s population was foreign born. European immigration increased greatly after the civil war, reaching 5.2 million in the 1800s. [|The Chinese Exclusion Act] From 1882 to 1943, most of the Chinese immigrants were barred from entering the United States. The Chinese exclusion Act was the nation’s first law to ban immigration by race or they’re nationality. The federal law prohibited Chinese residents no matter how long they legally worked in the US, from being naturalized citizens. [|Contract Agreement] During the 19th century demands for manual labors like building railroads, raise sugar on pacific islands, construct irrigation canals, etc grew. Normally free, these laborers served under contracts of indenture which required them to work for a period of time, in return for their travel expenses and maintenance. They will usually work from five to seven years, and work 9 hours of labor a day. [|Immigration Restriction] during the 19th and early 20th century, the United States imposed additional restrictions on immigrations. During the 20th century, all advanced countries imposed restrictions on the entry of immigrants. Many factors encouraged immigration restriction. These include a concern about the impact of immigration on the wellbeing of the countries workforce as well as anxiety about assimilating immigrants of diverse ethnic cultural origins. [|United States's Changing Face] Today immigration to the United States is at its highest level since early 20th century. Shaped by an unprecedented wave of immigrants from Latin American, Asia, an Africa, the face of the US changed in the space of 20 years. Since 1965 the number of Hispanics in the united states tripled and the number of Asians increased nearly eight-fold.