Immigrant Chicago

In taking our tour of Pilsen, it became obvious to me that it is a largely immigrant neighborhood.  Some people believe that immigrants are not beneficial to the city culturally nor economically.  However, I beg to differ.

To begin with, we need to remember that this entire country was built by immigrants.  There is not a single person in the city of Chicago that is really from there.  Yes, they may have been born in the city, but their culture and ethnicity comes from another place entirely.  Chicago was built by wave after wave of immigrants. They gave everything up in their home countries to come here and become the foundation for our country.  They help the economy in more ways we realize; without them doing their jobs, other Americans would not be able to do their jobs or have what they have today, and the economy would decline dramatically.  They also contribute culturally through their diversity.  Chicago is known as a global city, partially, I believe due to the many cultures that are present throughout.  You cannot go more than a block or two without running into an entirely different culture of people.  They may be separated by neighborhood/block, but there is a large sense of heterogeneity present in the heart of the city; all the separate cultures came together to create what we know as the American culture - we are a little bit of everything.

There are also many obstacles that immigrants face as well in today's Chicago.  For example, in the 1920's there was not as strict of a "document" policy, where as today you can be deported without papers, regardless of the life you have built or the family you are supporting.  However, there are many similarities between the immigrant groups of today and of Chicago in the 1920's as well.  For example, in Zorbaugh's Gold Coast and the Slum, he describes a second generation immigrant that was too Americanized for his family, and was too culturally similar to his family to be considered American.  The second generation was put in a place where they almost had to choose between assimilating to American culture and leaving their native culture behind, and keeping their native culture alive with their family and not being accepted into American society.  I feel as though today's immigrants face that same issue; how to find the balance between the two cultures without giving into or giving up one over the other.  The only thing that has really changed between the immigrant waves, are the cultures that they represent; the hardships they face between creating a new life and assimilating into a new culture remain the same for the most part.

However, the immigrant experience is different for Mexicans than it was/is for white Europeans.  Unfortunately, this is most likely due to their ability to assimilate into American culture much more easily than immigrant groups such as Mexicans.  For example, Europeans have fair skin/hair/eyes, where as Latinos have completely different physiques.  Therefore, despite the fact that Europeans, too, had cultural differences and different social norms than Americans, they were able to assimilate more efficiently than Latinos.