immigrants
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When reading Jacob Riis' How The Other Half Lives, it described the harsh lives of many different groups that made up the huge population in New York City. From around the 1820's to the 1920's an estimate of 60 million people left their homes to come to the United States of America to live better and wealthier lives. But when they reached America the typical immigrant found out that America wasn't all it was made up to be. What tempted many immigrants to come to America were the promises of high paying jobs and unlimited riches. Being told working in factories for better pay and fewer hours also contributed to why an immigrant wanted to come to America. But these were often false promises just to get the immigrant to come and work. As told by one immigrant, "They told me that in America the streets were paved with gold, When I got here, I found the streets were not paved in gold, they were not paved at all, and they expected me to pave them" (Davidson 642). This all ties together all the reasons immigrants came to America, a job, money, and a new life. Many immigrants who came to America had to leave their family behind because it was too expensive to bring family at first.
The trip to America was not a very pleasant one...