Chicago: A City of Immigrants

        Any individual that has ever taken a walk down a major street of Chicago and taken notice of the various restaurants and shops of unique ethnic origin has likely come to the realization that Chicago is a city of immigrants. The same can also be said for an individual, much like myself, who has experienced the unfortunate occurrence of receiving a speeding ticket in the city, and noticed that the payment instructions are offered in not only English, but Spanish and Polish as well.

            To be sure, the idea of Chicago being a city of immigrants is not exactly a new concept, as immigration is a longstanding staple of Chicago's identity. The experience itself is in many ways the same, but it has also changed in a variety of ways. Immigrants still come to Chicago from their respective countries in order to seek out economic opportunities and to be with family, but the jobs available to today's Chicago immigrants as well as the demographical breakdown of these immigrants are different than in the past.

            Indeed, Immigrants and economics in Chicago intersect in a vastly different fashion than before. While Chicago used to be an industrial powerhouse, with a plethora of factories available to workers, this is not as much the case today, as Chicago, like most modern American cities, has a workforce more concentrated in the service industry today. While the implications of this are further reaching than just our immigrants, it should be noted that many jobs in the service industry not only require the ability to speak the English language fluently, but also pay significantly less than factory jobs did.

            In effect, today's immigrants who lack an education as well as the ability to speak English fluently have decreased chances of succeeding in achieving upward mobility for themselves and their children. And much of these predicaments seemingly zero in on today's Mexican immigrants (who are also the largest immigrant group entering into Chicago, as well as the country) as Polish immigrants today are much more likely to be educated and possess professional occupation experience, which is a sharp contrast to Polish immigrants of the past, and many other white European immigrant groups of the past as well. Ultimately, many of the avenues that provided the success for the predominantly white immigrants of the past are either gone, significantly reduced, or altered.

            While today's immigrants face the discrimination that immigrants of the past faced, the discrimination and prejudice is more covert than overt (e.g. "Irish Need Not Apply" signs of the past). Koval and company speak of the resistance from white Chicagoans towards blacks and Latinos moving into once white neighborhoods, and Zorbaugh references the resentment towards "the dark people" (Sicilians/Italians) that came to occupy what became for a period "Little Hell/Italy." After reading this, I cannot help but feel that public opinion has not changed much from mainstream Chicagoans. Despite less overt discrimination, institutional prejudice is a severe road block in the modern immigrants path to success, especially for Mexicans who do not physically blend in with mainstream Americans as white immigrants can and did.

            Koval mentions that the ethnic enclave and the ethnic-based division of labor is dwindling, but this does not make immigrants any less powerful agents of change. In fact, prior to this blog prompt, I created an entire post about the effects ethnic succession can have upon a community on a cultural level (see: Ethnicity and Aesthetics in Urban Regions). Regardless of the struggles that immigrants face and will continue to face, they are an asset to Chicagoans for providing work and culture, even if some are threatened by the latter.