So much for FOX

[Provincial]

One of the factors of US expansion was the huge amount of immigration. There was tremendous demand for labor, much of it unskilled, and the standards of immigration laws reflected that. Many immigrants could not read or write in their native language, much less English, and they tended to live and work in areas where that native language was common. Employers used a bilingual foreman to communicate directions to the workers, and sometimes workers relied on their coworkers to show them what to do, and when.

This is a major reason for the rise in illiteracy during the 19th Century.

It was the children of those immigrants that learned English and moved up.

 

[titsonritz]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1656037032538390530

 

[DivCurlGrad72]

No more comments sections on any controversial topics. Final indicator that Fox has passed completely over to the dark side. They will be removed from my bookmarks.

 

[OldBroad44]

One of the factors of US expansion was the huge amount of immigration. There was tremendous demand for labor, much of it unskilled, and the standards of immigration laws reflected that. Many immigrants could not read or write in their native language, much less English, and they tended to live and work in areas where that native language was common. Employers used a bilingual foreman to communicate directions to the workers, and sometimes workers relied on their coworkers to show them what to do, and when.

This is a major reason for the rise in illiteracy during the 19th Century.

It was the children of those immigrants that learned English and moved up.

Certainly many immigrants were illiterate. But many of the immigrants were literate and brought much social capital. German immigrants, for example, were normally literate in German and highly skilled. They brought advanced farming techniques, and skills in beer brewing, building, mining, manufacturing, and printing. Often many people from one town would settle somewhere in N or S America and set up a town full of their friends and relatives from the old country, complete with German language schools and newspapers, a brewing industry, manufacturing, etc.

 

[Provincial]

Certainly many immigrants were illiterate. But many of the immigrants were literate and brought much social capital. German immigrants, for example, were normally literate in German and highly skilled. They brought advanced farming techniques, and skills in beer brewing, building, mining, manufacturing, and printing. Often many people from one town would settle somewhere in N or S America and set up a town full of their friends and relatives from the old country, complete with German language schools and newspapers, a brewing industry, manufacturing, etc.

The German immigrants were the "cream of the crop" of the mass (rather than elite) immigrant population. My in-laws came from southern Germany and Austria. They were part of a German settlement in Portland, but fled to rural Oregon in 1917 because of anti-German sentiment due to WWI.

Another group of Germans in our hometown were Mennonites. They still spoke "low" German, and they didn't come direct from Germany. They were very good farmers, and were recruited to move to Russia by Katherine the Great. She knew that Russia had to improve its farming practices, and also knew that the Mennonites were pacifists. Her sales pitch was free land and exemption from military service. This worked out well for a while, but later Czars broke the promise about military service, and the Mennonites emigrated. They first went to Canada, but later moved to the Midwest, Northwest states and California.

 

[OldBroad44]

There were other immigrant.populations that also brought much social capital. Urban European Jews, for example were often shop keepers, traders, and money lenders in first generations wherever they went, depending on ties to other Jews for ability to trade and import. These required literacy, numeracy, book keeping, etc. And cultural emphasis was on education and valuing hard work, so second and further generations who knew the needed languages often became doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers. They had these patterns wherever they went.

Immigrants from some areas of China became shopkeepers wherever they emigrated to, with literacy, numeracy, bookkeeping, entrepreneurship, valuing hard work and valuing education as part of their social capital.

There were also many Chinese peasants who emigrated to US and worked building railroads, mining for gold, and other general labor.

Thomas Sowell has a whole bok on these immigration patterns. Which areas produced immigrants with how much and what kinds of social capital. How older residents reacted when they found themselves passed economically by groups such as Jews and Chinese.

 

[Provincial]

If you ever get a chance to visit John Day, Oregon, a must-see venue is the Kam Wah Chung & Co. Museum. My wife and I got a chance to visit the museum before the recent facelift, and it was fascinating. It is a tribute to an incredible man. It is also a window into the relationship between the Chinese workers and the Americans. Things did not go well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kam_Wah_Chung_&_Co._Museum