The Pros And Cons Of Immigrants In America

America is commonly called the ‘giant melting pot’, but those who immigrated to America were seldom given respect. Society viewed them as inferior, especially if they did not speak American English. Most of them were forced to work in unsanitary and dangerous conditions, even the children, and the courts did not find them trustworthy, either. There are systems in America built and designed to protect people’s rights as Americans, but they failed to do just that for their nation’s immigrants. Immigrants in America were often treated unfairly by the systems that were supposed to protect them. The troubles for immigrants coming to America often started within the workplace. Immigrants were not treated right in their place of work and their bosses

While they needed the money to buy the necessities, the government could have been doing more to help protect the rights of these children. Child labor laws were not enforced thus giving immigrant children a disadvantage later in life because they were uneducated and had poor health from working in below par conditions. One former resident of Fitchburg, WI, Thomas William Jones, immigrated to the United States from Wales with his family of 7 in 1913, and it was decided that his only son, Edwin Jones, 11, was to start American school. After only one year of schooling, Thomas needed help to get the family back on their feet, so Edwin never went back to school. He took up a full-time job on a neighboring farm with Thomas and sister, Ann, until eventually, with combined efforts, they were able to buy their own milk route and a team of horses. After several years, this was enough for them to save up to rent their own farm. But in order for Edwin to rent the farm from a college professor, he would’ve had to take an agriculture course at the local university [a similar course is still available to take at UW-Madison today], so he had to write a college entry exam without a high school education (Jones). Edwin was deprived of opportunities later in life because the nation’s child labor laws had not been enforced, so he was in the absence of a complete education. Upton Sinclair illustrates the dangers of sending children to go to work in The Jungle when he narrates the fate of one boy in a lard factory, who, on “one bitter morning in February … came about an hour late, and screaming with pain. They unwrapped him, and a man began vigorously rubbing his ears; and as they were frozen stiff, it took only two or three rubs to break them short off” (Sinclair 79). The dangers of working in a factory were prevalent among