Immigrant Chicago

Immigrations and immigrants are extremely important to the city today, especially culturally and economically. The city of Chicago has neighborhoods which are dedicated and help provide comfort for specific cultures and immigrants, such as Pilsen. These neighborhoods help recent immigrants establish social connections and make living in the United States a bit easier. Also, there are “ethnic” restaurants and shops dedicated to serve the rest of society a little piece of another culture or ethnic group. Without immigrations and immigrants today, there would not be all these different restaurants and shops for everyone to enjoy and consume. Another reasons immigrations and immigrants are extremely important to the city today is because of economics. “Immigrants account for nearly all the growth in Chicago’s labor force during the past two decades” (Koval, 2006, p. 198). So, how can we conclude that immigration and immigrants are not important today when immigrants have done so much in the labor market? That is an irrational way of thinking. Immigrants from all backgrounds are formally and informally recruited for certain occupations. For example, Mexicans are informally recruited by employers due to their “perceived work ethic and willingness to labor for low wages” (Koval, 2006, p.199). Many occupations that offer lower wages are occupied by recent immigrants, such as Mexicans, because many of them have not had the opportunity of receiving higher education in their country of origin. As a result, there are more willing to work for lower wages in the United States in order to obtain the “American dream” of wealth, a nice home, children, pets, cars, and etc.

Furthermore, the obstacles and challenges that recent immigrants face today when compared to immigrants in the 19^th century – 1930’s are a little bit different. During this time period, many Europeans immigrated to Chicago, such as the Polish, the Italians, the Germans, and the Southern Europeans. Zorbaugh (1929) discusses in detail the lives of Italian families in “Little Hell” by explaining that many of the children of Italian immigrant families felt lost because they could not “live and conform in both social worlds at the same time” (American cultural values and norms versus Italian cultural values and norms p.176).  Also, Chicago’s immigrants during this time occupied many of the manufacturing, transportation, and trade jobs (Koval, 2006). This led many of Chicago’s immigrants, such as Europeans, to move up the socio-economic ladder. Even though many of the European immigrant groups faced discrimination because of different cultural values and norms, they were able to almost completely assimilate due to their skin color and the pressures of being the same as the rest of the population. As a result, European immigrants obtain higher paid jobs leaving the lower paid jobs to other immigrant groups, such as the Mexican and Latino immigrants.

There are many changes in the immigrant experience over the years, such as the pressures of assimilation are not as strong as in the past. This allows recent immigrants to incorporate the American values and norms with their own cultural values and norms. Discrimination still exists today; however, I believe that society has become more culturally accepting because of the many different cultural/ethnic restaurants and shops available to the general population. A major different in the immigrant experience today is the labor market. In the past, manufacturing and trade jobs were sky-rocketing offering high wages, but today that is a different story. Many recent Mexicans and Latinos occupy construction and service-based jobs, which offer lower wages when compared to the jobs and wages offered in the past to immigrants. The Mexican and Latino immigrants come to the United States with “lower education levels than other large foreign-born population or the native-born population;” therefore, Mexican and Latino immigrants are more likely to obtain jobs with the lowest wages (Koval, 2006, p.109). The lack of education and the increase in the wage gap contributes to the reasons why Mexican and Latino immigrant families are some of the poorest in the United States. How is this right? ….