Immigration

Author's Note: This is a timeline of the different immigrants that came to the United States, why they came and what happened when they came.  I wanted to try this instead of creating a normal timeline on a document.




Immigrants: The Similarities of People So Different

Author's Note: This piece is my way of comparing the trends in how different people from different nationalities immigrated to America; not only the way they immigrated but how, why, and what life was like when they came here.  I will employ artistic syntax structures like crisscross patterns, climatic patterns, and reversed patterns.  Along with that I will vary the use of the 4 sentence structures.  I will also try to maintain a formal voice.

Running through the dark timberland, sailing through the treacherous waters, soaring through the cloud spotted sky -- they all came here some time from some where. What we don't know is why they came or what happened when they came.  In life, there are many unique things that happen and every now and then, they go unnoticed.  Each and every single immigrant had a story behind their immigration to America.  It could be by force or at will.  If you look closely into the story of our nation, you will see the trends in how people lived when they first came: their loss, their reason, their struggle, and the living conditions they settled for.

The importance of how these people came isn't nearly as important as why.  Some people came due to financial struggle and poverty: Chinese, Japanese, Germans, Scottish, Italians, and Koreans are most of them.  Privileged and amazing, lives in their countries were not.  People take things like protection, civil rights, peace, happiness, and love for granted.  In other countries, people are forced to do things that are against their will, and some are so poor that they sell their children to abusive people just to earn money, which eliminates the meaning of love from their vocabulary, along with the right of happiness.  Would you even be able to call it earning if you have to give away everything you love?  Some receive the sadness of watching their family die in starvation, poverty, disease, and many other factors of life.  Others came in effect of events which threatened their country; the Irish came due to the Potato Famine, the Vietnamese came in effect of the Vietnam War, and the Jewish escaped the Holocaust and sought out America as refuge.  America is a shelter to all that seek freedom and life.  In some instances, like Africans in 1600s to the 1850s, they were bought from Americans to be used as slaves, thankfully that was abolished in 1863.  Others came in search of new land -- like the English, settlers of the thirteen original colonies.  People who immigrated to America knew their conditions, saw their opportunities, and dealt with their consequences.  Those are the things that make them Americans.

For most of the time, their trip was not easy, especially earning their living.  No one comes into America with all the money in the world.  Everyone has to work their way up to that, starting with a job tailored to their amount of education.  In similarity to the Jewish and the English, some took skilled professions such as investing.  Others were shop owners, worked with machinery, brewery, or skilled trade, reminiscent to the Italians and Germans.  Those who are like the Irish, Africans, Hmong, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Scottish, and Koreans which came from countries that were not as educated or wealthy took jobs that were unskilled and unwanted: farmers, cattle farmers, sugar plantation workers, police officers, miners, laborers, and slaves.  These jobs are thought of differently now and those people received improved jobs from there. 

Some may believe that life coming to America wasn't as rough as it was perceived; after all, their jobs were only temporary.  Although, there is one thing that didn't just last the first year.  For some, it hasn't changed since.  It is the way that they were treated.  The English were very powerful; just look at our first presidents.  They all came from English families.  Irish were laughed at and outside many locations of employment read a sign that said, "No Irish Need Apply".  Chinese were unwelcomed and seen as slaves workers taking care of the heavy labor for railroads, Africans were slaves for the first English settlers, and Germans were treated a lot like slaves as well.  Slavery was very common back then.  America needed to be built up to what it is now, and someone had to do it -- at will or by force.  Scottish were thought as less civilized humans, Italians were considered less equal, and Jewish people were treated as separate citizens.  For the many souls that came here for the same reasons, they all had their differences.  Hmong, Vietnamese, Japanese, and Koreans were discriminated against and the Hmong especially were outcast.  There was a power in numbers that many citizens feared.  The more of the same ethnicity that came, the greater this fear was.  Many worried that the Japanese would take all the jobs away.  People who arrived in United States had a lot to worry about, and they didn't stand together; they had more concerns for themselves than the people around them. 

Time is always changing and so are the ways people live their lives.  Before, it was difficult trying to leave, find transportation, get a job, and adapt to the stares and strange looks.  When you decide to move now, you're much more prepared.  Not only are you prepared, you aren't usually treated with pity and rejection, you have enough money to support yourself, and a decent place to reside while you are adapting to your environment.  Immigrants in the 1600s to the 1900s were like diamonds.  They have been beaten down and mistaken for nothing, but when it all ends, somebody realizes that they are truly significant findings.

If you would like to see the bibliography for this project and my Irish Potato Famine project, click on the like below.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X1k9OTKlwWlEL8WqV-NQ6xTn0o44Z7eRPasM6jK1j9I/edit

The Irish Potato Famine

Author's Note: This piece is about the Irish Potato Famine.  I used information from a first person account to show that I know the difference between first and second person account.  To understand why this happened, I also researched and contrasted the different farming practices we used then and now.  In this piece, I used climatic patterns, similes, quotes, and scientific terminology.  For those who don't know about the Irish Potato Famine, I hope you learn something new from this.

Irish: People who are from Ireland or that have ancestors from Ireland.  Potato: an edible tuber like root.  Famine: an extreme hunger, starvation, or scarcity of food.  The Irish Potato Famine: an event that took place in 1845-1850 where millions of Irish people died from disease, hunger, and at worse cases grief.  This event left a scar in the face of the world.  Although, now we can look at that mark and learn from it, so even though it devastated many, killed many, and agonized many there were still great lessons that were taught.

Potatoes were easy to plant and inexpensive so those who could not afford meat or other foods could grow these.  People used to depend on agriculture as a source of income, until they were destroyed.  If the Irish used irrigation systems, fertilizers, and checked their soil conditions, the potatoes would not have been destroyed by a fungus called phytophthora infestans.  This fungus turned the potatoes into possibly poisonous black mush.  Long after the blight was over, scientists found out that copper sulfate mixed with lime would have killed the disease.

Left:a healthy potato that can be found at a grocery store; Right:a potato that people would have seen in Ireland during the Famine

http://www.dochara.com/the-irish/food-history/the-irish-potato-famine-1846-1850/

If they had nothing to eat, could they stay?  No.  At least half a million Irish fled to the east coast of the United States in the first year; most of them stayed in Boston.  The Bostonians were rude to them and laughed when one passed.  They needed food and a home; that’s why they came.  There were a limited amount of jobs available, and many shops had signs that said, “No Irish Need Apply” on the door.  Irish men took poor jobs that didn’t require any skill, and even then the Irish stayed in alleys, backyards, gardens, or by the shore in little shacks.  Needless to say Boston was only a slight improvement from Ireland.

The fact that they were discriminated against was not their only problem.  At least sixty percent of the children born during the time of the blight did not live to be six years old.  In addition to that, most of their families did not live six years later.  Most of them died of starvation and the filthiness of their environment.  Their environments uncleanliness caused an infectious disease called cholera, which was one of the main causes of the decrease in population during this period in history.

“I saw the dying, the living, and the dead, lying indiscriminately upon the same floor,” said James Mahoney -- an artist that lived in Ireland during the time period.  As he walked through the streets of Clonakilty, Ireland, people surrounded coaches that came by and begged for food.  He saw a gaunt looking woman holding her dead baby in her arms as she waited to buy a coffin.  It was devastating to see families starving, it was devastating to see children crying, it was devastating to see part of the world in such a dark place.

After all the horror that struck Ireland and America during 1845 to 1850, they recovered.  As you can see we are no longer in the the terrible state we were in more than a century ago.  Britain contributed to the healing by creating soup kitchens to provide food, and employment for those who needed jobs and money.  Although, the Great Hunger is still seen as one of the most dreadful and disastrous time in history.

All in all there was a lot learned from this dreadful experience.  One being that relying on one substance, such as the potato, to keep millions of people alive.  Another lesson learned is that life isn’t always perfect, so when things go wrong you need to find a way to get back.  Lastly, the moral of the entire event is that no matter how awful things may seem, there is always hope; there is alway a treasure beneath the dirt and soil.