Immigration then and now

Once having been fully "Americanized," he explains, he evaluated the environment in which he was to work and conceptualized the role he would play in helping the immigrants adjust to America. The Ital-ian ghetto, he complained, did not resemble America, yet "neither did it resemble Italy." Rather, it was an environment in which "helpless" immigrants were "preyed upon" by some of the nation's "very worst features." 

This quote, I think represents most of the stories we read from "The Life Stories of [Undistinguished] Americans" because at the beginning we see most of them being first generation immigrants that struggle with becoming an "American" and going through the process of adapting to the new culture yet still keeping their own.  And I think this still happens today with immigrants.  It is very hard coming to a new country and having to take in their culture and experience everything anew, then having to kind of mold one's old culture with the new one in order to sort of fit in.  But as it is also referred in the quote above, most immigrants had their own areas, or in this case, ghettoes; in which they kept their old country ways but with an American twist because it wasn't exactly like their own country. I think as it was explained, these ghettoes were like the in-between stages where an immigrant doesn't feel like they are in their old country because they're in America, but at the same time it still has those aspects of the culture from back home. Relating to the present, I feel that immigrants today also try to stick together and care for each other, like many have done throughout these stories.  There was always someone there for them to help them through the tough times.  

Reading all of these stories reminded of the movie "Gangs of New York" which I feel really makes you picture how it was in the late 1800's with new immigrants coming in and older immigrants looking down upon this.  This also still happens today with immigrants because I constantly hear people complaining that the immigrants are taking their jobs because they are willing to take the same jobs for less money so that's why they are more likely to get hired.  And of course they are willing to take hard jobs for little money because little money is still better than what they made back in their own countries like the French Dress Maker or the Swedish Farmer and many others. This is why it's important for us an American culture to understand what immigrants have to go through and to not judge because, after all, they are just trying to survive.

Would you ignore an immigrant that desperately needs your help, or would you walk away and ignore the issue?

"Fictional and autobiographical portrayals of the immigrant experience in the United States give loud, clear voice to a major influ-ence on American life [...] To ignore, or limit the place of, fiction and autobiography in the classroom is to disregard profoundly important documents."