The term paper is to examine the immigration to the USA as a com-parative essay. Differences and similarities between the immigration process on the East Coast and West Coast are pointed out. Therefore, New York City arises as an example for the Eastern Bay and San Francisco for the Western Bay Area.
The paper deals with American immigration to the East and West Coast of the U.S., studies the causes for immigration flows in New York City and San Francisco and is to point out how culture is influenced by people with a different ethnical background.
Contents
I. Introduction
II. Immigration to the U.S.
II.1. New York City – an example for the American East Coast
II.1.1. History of Immigration
II.1.2. Cultural Influence
II.1.3. Ethnic Neighborhoods.
II.2. San Francisco – an example for the American West Coast
II.2.1. History of Immigration
II.2.2. Cultural Influence
II.2.3. Ethnic Neighborhoods.
III. Comparison of New York and San Francisco concerning History, culture and influence of immigration
IV. Conclusion
V. Bibliography
I. Introduction
The term paper is to examine the immigration to the USA as a comparative essay. Differences and similarities between the immigration process on the East Coast and West Coast are pointed out. Therefore, New York City arises as an example for the Eastern Bay and San Francisco for the Western Bay Area. Starting with the presentation of immigration to New York seems to be sensible as the East of America was occupied earlier than the West.
One of the main reasons for analyzing the relation between both areas is America’s character as the land of opportunity. It has always been an attractive region for many people who want to reach their goals. Especially cities like New York and San Francisco have raised interest in the past as they represent two well-known metropolises in the states.
Another reason is the situation in Europe in the past months. People leave their homes every day and refugees arrive in European countries. One starts questioning the causes of immigration and the different intentions immigrations might have.
Based on several sources dealing with American history and culture the term paper deals with American immigration to the East and West Coast of the U.S., studies the causes for immigration flows in New York City and San Francisco and is to point out how culture is influenced by people with a different ethnical background.
II. Immigration to the U.S.
II.1 New York City – an example for the East Coast of America
II.1.1. History of Immigration
The original inhabitants of New York had been Native Americans, but “the appearance of Europeans in the sixteenth century essentially destroyed their […] existence” (Dunford 2009, 433). The first man who visited the harbor of New York was the Italian Giovanni da Verrazano. In 1524, he accidently arrived on the East Coast of America because he had searched the “Pacific’s legendary Northwest Passage” (Dunford 2009, 433). Almost a century later, in 1609, the first Dutch people settled in the city, which they called Nieuw Amsterdam (ibid.). In 1664, the British expanded and captured the city. The name was changed from Nieuw Amsterdam to New York. In the 1750s, New York had about 16,000 residents. Only forty years later the population had reduplicated. Increasing business and trade and later on a ferry service made the city more attractive for immigrants. In the mid of the 19th century, the first immigration flows came to New York. Most of them were from Germany and Ireland. They came because of the famine and starvation, searching for better life conditions (Dunford, 433f). In the 1880s, many refugees arrived from Eastern and Southern Europe. The majority of them were originally Italian farmers hoping for new perspectives of life. The rest were Jews, who fled from anti-Semitism in Austria-Hungary and Russia. In 1892, Ellis Island, an island in the harbor of New York, became the official immigrant office, where immigrants underwent a medical check. People with diseases and illnesses were set back to their country of origin (Bretting 2003, 130).
In 1898, the city counted three million citizens “boosted by the first wave of Asian immigrants” (Dunford, 436), who dreamed of a better way of living. But instead, they earned their living by working under miserable conditions (ibid). The next immigration flows arrived in New York City after the Second World War. The city was now destination for people from Puerto Rico and Latin America (Dunford, 437). Thus, New York owned a diversity of nationalities and the culture of the city was influenced and ethnic neighborhoods were formed, which will be discussed in the next chapter of this work. In conclusion, one can say that New York gained a variety of nationalities in the past centuries since the discovery of America. Most of the immigrants were seeking a better way of leading their lives on the new continent.
II.1.2. Cultural Influence
As one can guess from the chronicles of New York, the different nationalities, which occupied the city, influenced the culture of the metropolis. Especially, “New York’s cafés and bakeries have been greatly influenced by the city’s diverse ethnic populations” (Dunford 2009, 290). The majority of restaurants or bistros in the city offer French and Italian food. These are to find in the Financial District and City Hall (ibid). As a result of the Asian immigrant waves, Chinatown was founded. Tourists get offers for Chinese or Japanese gastronomic specialties (Dunford, 78). This work will give a detailed description of Chinatown in the chapter of ethnic neighborhoods. Examples are different tea flavors like ginger, green tea, Taiwanese bubble tea but also meals like rice balls with mango sauce (Dunford, 291f). Furthermore, there are the well-known bagels. They are to find in several bakeries on the Lower East Side. Originally, the round rolls were made by Jewish foreigners from Eastern Europe (Dunford 293). There is much more food whose roots are in other countries like Poland, India, Great Britain.
Apart from the food industry, art and entertainment had also been influenced by the immigrant root of New York’s residents. In Astoria, “the largest Greek community in the USA” (Lyon 1999, 204), film production started. One can find the work in the “American Museum of the Moving Image” (ibid). Besides this museum, there are other ones showing art works by Africans, Egyptians and Asians (Lyon, 203). The music scene makes use of exotic sounds and rhythms from West India, Brazil and Latin America (Cook 1998, 97f). Aside from influence of food, nightlife of art, ethnic communities are the reason for many parades and festivals in the seaside town. Examples therefore are the New York Jewish Film Festival, where provocative Jewish movies are shown, or the Lunar Chinese New Year, which takes place when there is the first full moon between January 21st and February 19th.
The Cherry Blossom Festival, which is celebrated by the Japanese population of the city in early May accompanied by traditional music, fashion, art and sword-fights, is followed by the Ukrainian Festival in mid-May, which is an event for citizens with a Ukrainian ethnical background (Dunford, 416f).
In summary. It can be stated that immigrant culture has a great influence on life in New York. Feasts, food and art are integrated in society and are now a regular part of it.
II.1.3. Ethnic Neighborhoods
„New York is very much a city of neighborhoods” (Dunford 5). One of them is the Lower East Side, which is famous for its ethnic diversity. Up to forty percent of its population has an immigrant background. The majority comes from Asia, especially China, and Spanish-speaking nations (Dunford 81f). It belongs to the working-class (ibid). Today it is divided in two neighborhoods. While the north is being mostly inhabited by an expanding Latino society, the south is home to the Chinese (Lyon 189). In the 17th century released slaves were the first people living in this area (ibid). In 1833, many apartment buildings were constructed. Immigrants from Ireland and Germany occupied these houses and “Klein Deutschland” (Dunford 88) was built. In the 19th century, it became a slum for about 500,000 Jewish immigrants and thus was the most heavily populated place worldwide. Apart from Russian immigrants, there were also Dominican and Chinese ones, who came to live in this region. Today the Lower East Side still has many characteristics that refer to its multicultural roots (Dunford 88f).
Other flourishing neighborhoods are Chinatown and Little Italy, which both have a great influence on gastronomic diversity in New York. Their roots are linked to Italian and Chinese immigration flows in the 19th century.
In the beginning, Chinatown remained as a temporary solution for Chinese settlers. They planned to make money and then return to China, but with their wages they had to pay for their lifestyle. Due to this, Chinatown became a durable place to live (Cook 72). Restaurants and groceries which offered a lot of typical Asian dishes and exotic vegetables were opened up (Dunford 78). Aside from Chinese shops, there were also Vietnamese ones in this area (Lyon 185). Nonetheless, Chinatown is an example for segregation. The majority of the inhabitants live in their “minisociety without using a word of English” (ibid).
Similar to the Chinese, who built Chinatown, Italian immigrants, who arrived in the late 19th century, had the idea to recreate their homeland and separate themselves from the other citizens (Dunford 84f). But today, Little Italy has not the ethnic character it used to have in the beginning. In comparison to the Chinese area, it lost much of its original spirit due to assimilation (Lyon 185).
Another famous neighborhood is Harlem, a neighborhood with African-American background. It is characterized by poverty and racial discrimination (Cook 88). In 1658, the town Nieuw Haarlem was occupied by the Dutch, who used it as acreage. In the mid-nineteenth century, well-moneyed immigrant families from the Lower East Side were attracted by Harlem. German Jews and Italians came because of the new brownstone houses that had been built in the neighborhood. But in the following years, the area lost more and more popularity and that is why many citizens moved northwards to Washington Heights or Bronx. Due to the housing crisis in 1904, nobody was able to pay for living in one of the expensive houses. As a result, many apartments in Harlem were unoccupied. Fifteen years later, black realtors bought the empty apartments for very cheap prices and let them on a lease for African Americans, who had been suppressed in the city’s society. The majority of them had been abused for slavery (Saller 2008, 124ff). After that, many Italian and German families that had been living in the neighborhood before moved northwards as they did not want to live next to dark-skinned people (ibid). Due to this, Harlem was almost entirely inhabited by African Americans in the 1920s (ibid). Today it is still a “rich black community” (Saller, 124-136).
The South and East of Harlem built “Spanish Harlem” or “El Barrio” (Cook 88). It is inhabited by a huge community of Puerto-Ricans, but there is also a small number of Italians living there. The center of “El Barrio” has long been “La Marqueta”. In this area many Latin American grocers sold a huge variety of things, from vegetables and fruits to fashion and jewelry. Nowadays, the ethnic diversity is changing constantly due to increasing numbers of Mexican immigrants living in New York (Dunford 209).
II.2. San Francisco – an example for the West Coast
II.2.1. History of Immigration
The city has long been owned by Native Americans of the Miwok and Ohlone tribes (Lyon 1007). In the early 1800s, immigrants from Russia arrived at San Francisco. They mostly inhabited the Northern part of the city, where some of them still live today. Nearly at the same time, many Hispanic-Americans established themselves in the Bay Area and in San Francisco. They were almost all from Latin America and Mexico. Although the Mexicans were suppressed in 1846, some of them stayed in the city (Kindersley 1994, 41). At this time, the actual history of migration in San Francisco started with the “discovery of gold in the Sierra foothills” (Cook 941), which was the beginning of the well-known “rip-roaring Gold Rush” (Cook 941)) and the famous 48ers.
The population increased fivefold (Lyon 1007). Immigrants from China left their homeland because of the political oppression there and came to work in the mines of California. Since then, there is a considerable number of Chinese living in San Francisco (Kindersley 40).
About ten years later, another immigration wave from Mid-Asia reached the metropolis. At this time, the transcontinental railway was built and many Asians came to work on it (Kindersley 40). The 40,000 residents from China, who lived in poverty and miserable circumstances in Chinatown, formed the “largest of the city’s minority groups” (Kindersley 40). Chinatown was the center of San Franciscan population with a Chinese immigration background (ibid).
In the following years Irish and Italian people settled in the megacity. The Irish became workers who filled “in the bayfront mudflats” (Kindersley 40). Others were deployed as policemen to reduce the barbarousness that ruled during the Gold Rush (ibid). The Italians came as fishermen and installed themselves in the famous Fisherman’s Wharf (ibid).
In the beginning of the 19th century, the number of African Americans (about 5,000) inhabiting San Francisco was very small. During and after World War 2 the black population was decupled. They came to work in factories and shipyards. In 1980, some Japanese businessmen arrived at San Francisco to built hotels and offices in the city as Japanese economy was expanding (ibid). However, the number of Japanese remained very low and today there are only six blocks existing in the region they used to populate. Other undefined nationalities are to find as well in the city. They consist of a small number of Jews and some groups of citizens with Vietnamese and Cambodian origin living in poorer neighborhoods (ibid).
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