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Problems after moving to USA - Coggle Diagram
Problems after moving to USA
Overcrowding
Houses only had 1 or 2 rooms per family
This was a problem since most new Americans had large families
Sanitation
Not many tenements had running water
Also few had bathrooms
One toilet in hallway shared by many families
Some only had backyard outhouse
"Apartments had no heating. Running water was only available in the filthy hall. Toilets were in the basement, about 10 floors down from our room. The smell was terrible and in winter we froze. But we froze back in Russia so what’s the difference? At least now we had a dream to aim for." :
Ventilation
Over a thousand rooms in a tenement block
Over 400 rooms had no window
No fresh air passed through the houses
Many people died from illnesses
On summer nights some slept on roofs or fire escapes or their buildings
"Four to six stories high, with four apartments on each floor, they held two or three families in each apartment, all with no elevator or indoor plumbing. We used cesspools and outhouses for sewage. And people just threw their garbage in the street. 500,000 people per square mile living on the Lower East Side got awfully crowded and smelly!"
"In 5 years 32 people in our block had died from breathing problems brought on by the lack of heating and the damp rooms we lived in."
Employment
Sorting coffee beans for resale
Making clothes
Selling bread on the street
Trash collectors
Construction workers
Crime
"Slums could be found wherever immigrants settled. With such bad conditions it’s hardly surprising that so many tried to escape by making easy money. Every block had its gambling dens, its prostitutes and its gangsters. Immigrant crime is a threat to the American way of life."
Children
Kids played on the sidewalks and streets and schools
Overcrowded and thousands were turned away
School buildings were poorly heated, turned away
Special needs of children who spoke foreign languages or had learning disabilities not taken into account
More than 100,000 kids worked in factores instead of going to school
Factories were dark, damp, dangerous and dirty