Discrimination

During the three phases of immigration to the United States, the Polish people faced many prejudices upon their arrival, especially during the first wave. The first wave came in the late 1800’s mainly for political and religious reasons. The second wave took place after World War II and the third group in the 1980’s. The Polish population had become acclimated to the disrespect they received from those in the existing community. The majority of the Polish people arriving here did not speak English, were Roman Catholic, and dressed differently from the current population of Anglo-Saxon Protestants. They lived in diverse neighborhoods that were residentially integrated by ethnicity, but tended to be socially segregated. I believe that the Polish immigrants also suffered from segregation that they brought on themselves till they assimilated to the way of life here in the United States. These ethnic groups developed their own churches, schools, and other institutions around which their social lives revolved. Some people in the community were suspicious or hostile due to their inability to communicate effectively with the immigrants, while there were others that were welcoming. Jokes were constantly made up and rumors continually heard of how the Polish are dumb, lazy drunks. Job competition was another way the Polish faced prejudice and segregation. Employers sometimes recruited particular ethnic groups thus assigning characteristics to those particular groups. This type of discrimination, based on perceived characteristics of an entire ethnic group, often limited their opportunities, though in some cases it provided an advantage for the person seeking a job in a field considered appropriate by the employer. The kind of work that the new Polish Americans received was quite undesirable such as, working with dead animal bodies, steel mills, and in the slaughterhouses. They would work for little money but worked hard for it. One could determine that the Dual Labor Market was in effect because the wages of Polish workers reached far less than that of African Americans and dealing with very unsafe working environments. Again when the Polish came over they worked for next to nothing. Caroline Golab, in her recent study lmmigrant Destinations, has pointed out that because Blacks and Immigrants provided pools of unskilled 1abor, “there was an inverse relationship between the foreign-born and the Black populations of America’s cities." Because they sought essentially the same jobs, immigrants and Blacks originally each avoided areas and regions where the other was dominant in the nineteenth century. Immigrants had difficulty breaking into the job market where Black labor was entrenched, as in the south and Blacks experienced the same difficulties in areas where immigrants provided most of the unskilled labor.[1] The Solid Glass ceiling ultimately put a stop to any form of achievement for those Polish immigrants who succeeded at mastering their trade. This was simply because most were seen as inferior to others and undereducated. This in no way was an easy thing for them to change solely because academic resources were a hard thing for most Poles to obtain. This increased the amount of discrimination toward the Polish Immigrants simply because most people felt like they did not deserve the opportunities that a typical American receives. Polish Americans where indeed white, according to their skin tone but on the other side they were faced with the reality of being from a different area with different beliefs, thus giving them the extreme unpopularity amongst many. Their status also caused them to face much prejudice and discrimination. They were described as mentally deficient, animalistic sub-humans who were incapable of creating a genuine human culture. Even though these immigrants struggled to call a place in history their own many would never go back to the homeland that they came from. Being born and raised in the United States, I would culturally identify more with the mainstream United States because of the fact that I have only know what I do of the Polish culture because of what I have learned in school and through my family and have no first-hand knowledge. It was emotionally easy for me to research everything I needed to find out about the Polish people and their journey to the United States and throughout the early years, but then once I went to my grandfather for information that emotion became real. I saw the real hurt and pain that those who have emigrated from Poland have felt and gone through. I am sorry that I haven’t spent more time with my grandparents when I was younger to learn the Polish culture, especially the cooking. I believe that it is important to learn of your ethnicity and practice in everyday life. 1. Caroline Golab, Immigrant Destinations (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, I977) 14-21. -----------------------