Italian Immigration To Usa
The United States has long been known as the melting pot of the world. Many nationalities have influenced what the United States is today. The Italian Americans have made a significant impact on the United States of America. The Italians came to America to work hard with humble beginnings, to organized crime, to successful members of American society.
In the early 1800's, there were not very many Italians immigrating to the United States, but at the same time Italy was becoming very overcrowded. Not only was it becoming overcrowded, but also according to John Simkin, most Italians were from rural communities with very little education. From 1890 to 1900, 655,888 Italians arrived in the United States, of whom two-thirds were men. America was probably a target because many other countries hyped it up as "the land of opportunity". America had plenty of jobs and the Italians were looking for work. A survey carried out that most of these immigrants planned to return once they had built up some capital. In fact, from 1900 to 1910 over 2,100,000 Italians moved to America. Forty percent of those immigrants returned to their homeland. (Simkin)
Those Italians that were immigrating to the United States were entering through Ellis Island, New York. They were settling mostly in New York City, Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. New York was the largest colony of Italians. Italian Harlem was located next
to the East River and had a population of 150,000 living in an area of one square mile. (Medina)
The majority of the Italian immigrants were taking heavy manual labor jobs in steel mills, clothing factories, shoe factories, and construction. Because the Italians could not initially speak English, they were contracted out by professional labor brokers, known as the pardones, to help them find work. During this time, the Italians were making about $5 - $10 a month working 90 hours a week. Unfortunately, the padrones were not...
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