Education and Female Immigrants

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Recommended: Immigration in America in the 20th century

The topic that I am going to explore with you is that of educational opportunities and lack of educational opportunities for female immigrants and their children during the early 20th century, late 20th century, current struggles and my daughters personal experience with educational opportunities. At the end of this paper I hope to have helped you gain a better awareness of the educational challenges these women and children dealt with, what students are still dealing with today, and a personal struggle with education.
Migration to America first started in the 1800’s with large numbers in Irish, Italian and Jewish cultures. Before coming to America many of the immigrant children did not have much of an education and families did not see education as being as important as learning a trade or finding a husband. Jewish families sent boys for religious education, however were not as worried about sending the girls. For Italian girls education was an option, however the poor needed the kids to stay home and work. Most Italian families could not afford to send their child to school. Irish girls were sent to school if the family could pay. Many children did attend, however the great famine forced many families to the point of starvation and funding was not available for the children. Eventually many families in Ireland were forced to leave Ireland and many sought salvation in America.
Migration in the Early 20th century to America was scary in many ways; mothers feared losing their children to American Institutes. Some mothers felt American education made children, “persons of leisure” (Ewen, 1985). Mother’s felt that schools set their children up to loses; they felt their daughters were needed at home to help with hous...

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...upport. The creator, “Norma Vega, a social worker and a former principal at Bronx International High School” had a vision and continues to work with immigrants (Medina, 2009). Vega also points out the immigrants who struggle, “If they were all sent to regular high school, they would simply be lost” (Medina, 2009)

Reference
Ewen, E. (1985). Immigrant Women in the Land of the Dollars. Canada: Monthly Review Press.
Hans Johnson (2011). Immigration and Education . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.ppic.org/main/publication_show.asp?i=821. [Last Accessed January 2, 2014 ].

Jennifer Medina (2009). In School for the First Time, Teenage Immigrants Struggle. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/education/25ellis.html?pagewanted=all.

Seller, M. (1994). Immigrant women. (2nd ed.). Albany: State University of New York Press

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