How did immigrants survive in New York City in the 1900's?

The best way to learn this if you're in NYC is to visit the Tenement Museum on Orchard Street. It has tours with stories of the immigrants who lived there, and also historians who can answer your questions. read more

Many immigrants who landed in NYC and everywhere else in the USA did NOT survive. Mortality stats for new immigrants were extremely high, especially for children. Malnutrition, filth, disease, childbirth, bad water, overcrowding, overwork and wave after wave of epidemic disease decimated immigrants from the first to try their luck in the USA till well into the 1900's. read more

Why They Left Home The late nineteenth century America was seen as the land of opportunity and New York City as the gateway. After the unification of the United States at the end of the civil war in 1865, through foreign eyes America began to emerge as a country where discrimination was intolerable and freedom was promised to all who entered. read more

People who came to America to live are called immigrants. From the 1850s through the early 1900s, thousands of immigrants arrived in the United States and lived in New York City. They first came from Ireland and Germany and later from Italy, Eastern Europe, and China, among other places. read more