You’ve just stepped off the ferry from Ellis Island with your beat-up suitcases. Welcome to New York City!
All around you, the waterfront is buzzing. People are everywhere, and you can’t understand what they’re saying. What do you do first? Maybe you notice that the streets are not paved with gold after all! If you’re lucky, you look around for family or friends who came over earlier. Or perhaps you bought a train ticket at Ellis Island and need to find the station. Or maybe you know no one here, and you’re tired and hungry and a little scared. So you start looking for a place to live.
One in every three immigrants who came to New York City during the Great Migration stayed there. But no matter where someone settled, they had two big tasks: finding a job and a place to live. Let’s look at what life was like for the new immigrants.
