Immigration
· New York city (called Big apple) can be defined by its ethnic and cultural diversity; you can find there areas like Little Italy, Chinatown and several other ethnic areas with names of their countries
· the greatest waves of immigrants came in NY from 1840’s to 1920’s and their reasons were personal freedom and economic opportunity; they found there schools and jobs which helped them to integrate into the larger community, but the fathers often couldn’t find a job and the mothers felt isolated from friends; so they hoped their children would attend better schools and get better jobs (children were their only connection between the old and new world – they could write and speak English and soon they got better paid jobs than their parents)
· some 20 million of immigrants passed through Ellis Island between 1891 and 1954 (was closed), also known as Isle of Tears, because all immigrants feared that they couldn’t pass and after many weeks of exhausting voyage over the ocean they would have to return
