Fifth Grade
Worksheets
Home Sweet Home for an Immigrant
If you were an immigrant to America in the 19th or early 20th century, leaving your old home meant a lot of changes. Your new way of life in America would be quite different from your old one. It would also be very different from that of most Americans today.
Immigrants often lived in large cities in cramped apartments called tenements. Living in these small rooms was a big adjustment for them. One man described his first home in America. His family had come from a beautiful area in southern Italy. He wrote, "The sunlight and fresh air of our mountain home in Lucania were replaced by four walls and people over and under and on all sides of us, until it seemed that humanity from all corners of the world had congregated in this section of New York City."
The average-sized home or apartment of today would seem huge to an immigrant. Even having an apartment for only one family was a sumptuous treat. Most immigrants had to have extra people in their apartments to help pay the rent. Often, six or more people shared a room. You might be used to having your own room or sharing it with one brother or sister. For an immigrant, this was impossible. Parents usually put three or four children in one bed. No one had any privacy.
