Opportunities for and success of immigrants

• Employment
  • In the case of African Americans, employment was plentiful, but it came in the form of slavery
  • Most Scotch Irish became frontier farmers
  • Some were able to rise in the world, such as in politics
• Living conditions
  • Living conditions varied depending upon the slave owner
  • The slaves were not free and unless the slave owner was "kind", living conditions were not what you would call magnificent
• Education
  • In the case of slaves, the only real education was that of life on the plantation. It was incredibly rare when a slave learned to read because the slave owners knew that it would be easy to keep in charge of the slave if they became educated and the slaves did not
• Social Mobility
  • As far as advancing socially, this was nearly impossible because the slaves were not free
• Political Representation
  • There was not much political representation for the slaves, but there were some politicians that tried to set the slaves free
  • Some /scorch Irish immigrants were able to become politicians, however I do not know whether they stuck up for their heritage.

1830-1890

• After the Civil War immigration agents went to Europe to enlist recruits for the American Industrial army
• In 1864 they legalized contracts by which immigrants pledged the wages of their labor for a term not to exceed twelve months to repay expenses of their journey to the U.S.
• In 1868 the law was repealed but the American Emigrant Company still imported laborers upon orders from employers until 1865 when Congress made it unlawful
• Immediately upon arrival, the immigrants fell under the watchful eyes of politicians as potential voters
• Some immigrant stocks were even called "voting cattle" to be herded to the polls by bosses and ward helpers
• Immigrant vote did not seriously affect the outcome of elections except for public excitement over questions that directly concerned the interests of the immigrants or injured their priced
• Homestead Act of 1862 gave every man 160-acre farm

1890-1924

• Employment
  • Dry Cleaners
  • News Stands
  • Grocery Stores
  • Machine Shops
  • Garment factory
• Living conditions
  • Apartments in city
  • Houses in the slums
  • Poor living conditions
• Education
  • Children got education after coming to America
  • Parents and elders got no education
• Social Mobility
  • The Polish, Italians, and the Jews had more of a social mobility then the Asians because racism and the way they look
  • Jews had some problems because of their religion
• Political Representation
  • The Italians had the most political representation of all the groups
    • They had Ferillo LaGuardia, mayor of N.Y.
  • The Poles and Jews had small political representation
  • The Asians had little or no representation

1968-Present