Immigrant agency and adaptation in America: three historical examples

Surviving Immigration: The Role of Agencies

In establishing themselves in America, immigrants were subject to conditions to which they were forced to adjust without any control, such as places of habitation and adapting to American laws. However, immigrants also had some degree of agency that allowed them to take control of their lives. This paper describes three examples of individual or communal agency that were important for the immigrants in building their lives in America.

From 1892 to 1954, more than 12 million immigrants came to the United States (Brown Foundation, 2000). The early 1900s was the period that brought in the most immigrants. Hospital buildings, dormitories, disease wards and kitchens were all quickly built between 1900 and 1915 in a constant struggle to meet this enormous influx of people.

During the early 1900s, Americans, who were predominately white, selected only those whom they believed fit to live in this country (Prescott, 1903). In the early 1900s, acceptable immigrants were those who spoke English well and had customs similar to our own. American society sought those that they believed could contribute to the American economy.

Early immigrants mainly came to the United States seeking a better life for their families and the opportunity to earn a good and honest living (Prescott, 1903). For the most part, many of these people were too proud to accept handouts. Early immigrants built strong work ethics that created our roads, building and foundation.

Immigrants entered the United States with dreams of success, prosperity and better lives. Most of the immigrants believed that America would bring nothing but happiness (Franke 2004). Across Europe, advertisements promised bright future and economic stability to citizens. Immigrants came to America seeking jobs with excellent wages and working conditions, safety, and other benefits seemed like a chance in a lifetime, especially to these poor people who had never experienced prosperity.

For most, life in the United States was not as they had anticipated. There was a lack of jobs and many groups were discriminated against. Those who could find jobs often ended up in factories, steel factories, or meat packing factories.

For many immigrants, America was frightening and lonely. Thus, they sought solace in creating communities and agencies within their individual groups. According to Kuchka (2003): "The United States is certainly the melting pot of the world, but a more appropriate word to use would be "assimilation." Webster's dictionary defines "assimilation" as "to make similar or to absorb into the cultural traditions of a population or group." When all our forefathers came to America they had a tendency of migrating to the same towns and cities. Once there, they also ended up living in the same ethnic neighborhoods. This was done because of language barriers and of course, in numbers there is safety. Many new immigrants weren't always welcomed with open arms. The immigrants looked different, dressed different, talked different and in some cases even ate certain ethnic foods that could only be obtained in certain neighborhoods."

In the early 1900s, assimilation with other ethnic groups was a foreign concept to many immigrants (Kuchka, 2003). They found comfort in building their own communities. Most ethnic groups created their own social clubs so that they could fraternize and associate with their own people. Even the churches that were built during the late 1800's or early 1900's leaned toward a certain ethnic groups. This helped many foreigners, who were thousands of miles from home and forced to change their lives in so many ways, deal with the challenges they faced as immigrants.

A communal agency that helped immigrants adapt to the challenges of immigration and take control of their lives was the church. Religion and community was very important for early immigrants and remains this way for today's immigrants, as well. Thus, the church provided a great deal for immigrants.

The Catholic Church has historically supported various groups of immigrants coming to the United States from various countries (Franken, 2004). For example, today the Church dedicates numerous resources to immigrants from Africa through pastoral care and social and legal services. According to Franken (2004): "At every level of the Church -- national, diocesan, and parish levels -- efforts are being made to understand these newest immigrants and respond to their needs in ways that are respectful of their cultural heritage and responsive to their spiritual and social needs."

According to Franken (2004), immigrants have come to this country for many reasons. Some sought better lives. Some fled religious and political persecution. Despite the reason for their arrival, the U.S. has been populated largely through immigration. Today, more than 10% of its population is foreign-born.

Over the past several decades, the Catholic Church provided assistance to refugees from more than 70 different ethnicities as they were resettled in more than 200 communities across America (Franken, 2004). Because so many immigrants have entered from countries where Catholicism is dominant, the Church responded to immigrants' needs by creating "national" parishes in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

As the immigrant population became more ethnically diverse and the earlier immigrants migrated from their initial parish communities, the local parishes have made efforts to provide pastoral care to all immigrants, not just those from the ethnic groups that had earlier settled.

A third type of agency that helped immigrants adapt to their new surroundings was the educational agency. Booker T. Washington was one individual whose efforts to educate foreigners about the importance of education and learning a trade.

Booker T. Washington was born in a rude slave cabin in Virginia and grew up in the salt mills and coalmines. He was unique in that he constantly sought knowledge (Du Bois, 1903). His knowledge eventually led him to memorize an entire copy of a spelling book and, later, to found the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute.

The institute opened in 1881, with 30 students in an old church and a building that was falling apart, until the present day, the world-renown Tuskegee Institute has been guided by the principles of Washington, who taught his students "the dignity and the beauty of labor and that learning a trade was more necessary sometimes than the study of Greek and Latin verbs (Du Bois, 1903)." "It is at the bottom of life we must begin," he taught, "and not at the top." By 1915, the year Washington died, the Institute had more than 1500 students, almost 200 teachers, more than 100 buildings and thousands of loyal alumni.