Coming to America- Ellis Island |Push-and- Pull f Immigration Historians use the words "push ‘and "pul wien they study migration, Something "pushes" Immigrants away from thelr orginal homes. Something "pulls" them to ther new home. So} If everything is going well at home, most people don’t want to leave. Something must "push ther to make such a big change. Even then, there are also good reasons to stay. People must decide If what they gain worth what they must ve up. How can a new comer be comfortable in their new environment? ‘Greate a Community New immigrants adjusting to their new American communities, ‘sought refuge within communities oftheir own. Churches, ‘synagogues, and social clubs where they could speak their ‘own language and practice their own traditions bound them together as "ethnic groups” for the first time. The children of immigrants often felt caught between these two worlds: Their ‘American communities and the "Old Country” that they had never seen. Eventually, as generations passed, the ethnic ‘communities became absorbed into the larger community. Freedom Opportunities Adventure Oppressive governments Religious Persecution Poverty Famine Push Pull Survival in a new land. Putting food on the table is at the root of most immigrants! reasons for leaving home and setting in a new place. And work is what puts food on the table and a roof over family. In the "Old Country” often as not, future immigrants were Peasant farmers who literally grew the food their family Needed to lve. Little oftheir old lives prepared former Peasants for the work they would do in America. The mills and mines ran around the clack, never stopping for night or holidays. Noise, heat, dark, and danger, were hallmarks of industrialized work. The new "greenhorns" would be taken advantage of at frst. Eventually, though, they lear organ: with the Boss, as the labor movement gained steam,Discussion: How is "Coming to America" different today than a hundred years ago?