Immigration In Oscar Wyman's Life Of Immigrants By Oscar Handlin

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Oscar Handlin describes the life of immigrants to be full of hardships. His high points were migration, Americanization, and racism. Handlin writes about how the immigrants felt let down by America once they settled there. At first, they were welcomed off the ships without inquiry, but once people started to compete for labor, a judgment of races came into play. Handlin depicts the newcomer as an equal to the natives, in that he would be able to do everything that the American could do once he or she was neutralized. Handlin also declares that society would see an immigrant as an American before the law would see him or her as one, but I think this statement contradicts some of his other statements. Such as, how most Americans thought you had …show more content…

He describes them as more heartfelt towards America and American ways. A few of his high points were the American trunk, two types of immigrants, and Mother country. To immigrants, the American trunk held either their most prized possessions that represented the conquering of hard times or items of value that they might could sell in their Mother country. The trunk symbolizes for the emigration and remigration of immigrants from America back to their homelands. In most remigrated homes, the trunk is kept for a memory of where their family has been and what their family had to go through to get where they are today. The American trunk holds great importance for immigrants. Next, Wyman describes two types of immigrants: the ones who plan to stay in America and the ones who plan to go back to their homelands after they make enough money. The immigrants who planned to stay were more open to American ways; these people were more accepted by Americans. On the other hand, there were the temporary immigrants. These immigrants did not want to get involved in American ways, such as, by learning English or joining any organizations like the unions who fought for better wages. This is the group that Handlin refers to as the group who stays to themselves, mostly in working cities. They stayed in working cities because all they did was work to send money back home to their families. This made a lot of Americans angry because they were sending U.S. dollars overseas. This anger led to racism, separation, and organizations like the Ku Klux Klan that Handlin mentioned. Lastly, the immigrant’s homesickness for their homeland was a major cause for the remigration. They realized that no matter how much money they made, that they would still miss their families. Most immigrants would earn enough money in America so that they could go back and have an improved life in their homeland. They took back various American ways

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