The Immigration Commission Isaac Hourwich Summary

Isaac Hourwich's purpose in writing this book is to inform readers on the actualities of the immigration movement. The purpose of most scholary pieces of literature are stated at the beginning of the book, as Hourwich did. His text was written as a response to The Immigration Commission. Hourwich wished to respond to the prejudiced Americans who thought that the goal of the new immigrants was to take jobs away. Hourwich begins by stating that restricted the labor market (1). He goes onto say that during the 1880s and the early 90's the general consensus of "native" Americans, the past Northern and Western immigrants was that the new (southern and eastern) immigrants goal wad to come to America in search for employment. In return each immigrant

coming would essentially steal a job from an American. Hourwich notes how the new immigrants were now disliked duebto their genetic background and the new immigrants had made their way into an assimilated American lifestyle, ironic because it was only a few decades before when old immigrants were looked down upon as well. The new immigrants went through similar struggles as their older immigration counterparts, but were regarded as being unsatisfactory when it came to be their turn to migrate to the new country. Hourwich states that the only major difference the two groups had was their numbers. Thenew immigrants had come in noticeably greater numbers, which was disliked (3). Immigrants were blamed for unemployment.