Essay About Immigration In Chicago

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Immigration in Chicago: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Abstract The principal purpose of this paper is to enlighten readers of the complex problems of immigration in Chicago’s past, primarily from the perspective of Italian immigrants. Like all immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Italians were exploited from the time they arrived in Chicago. Of equal importance are the problems that immigration either created or made worse in Chicago. Unemployment, racism, lack of housing, and poverty are all examples of problems directly related to the influx of immigrants in Chicago. A secondary objective for this paper is to show the significance of the rise Immigrant Protective League. The Immigrant Protective League helped immigrants in legal manners, finding jobs, and locating housing when the law would not. The research done in this paper demonstrates the difficulties faced by Italian immigrants resulting in the rise of the Immigrant Protective League, as well as the problems made worse in…show more content…
From the time the immigrant steps off the train, vultures are lurking to take advantage of him. Everyone wants to overcharge him and misdirect him in hopes of self gain. Unfortunately, for the foreigners there were few people trying to help them honestly without self interest. Immigrants had to pay to get jobs. They couldn’t bank at normal banks because banks didn’t carry clerks speaking Italian, so they were stuck banking with crooks they thought to be honest. The immigrants were bleed of their money in most places and looked down on by most. Many people in the city of Chicago disliked immigrants and law enforcement was clearly not concerned with the immigrants’ problems. It wasn’t until the Immigration Protection League that immigrants began to receive fair treatment. Without the Immigration Protection League it is possible that legislation and equality for immigrants would have been stunted
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