This inquiry leads students through an investigation of the experiences faced by immigrant groups who traveled to New York throughout the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Understanding those experiences helps students develop keen insights into the cultural fabric of New York State. In examining the initial hopes of immigrants and their reasons for coming to America, the social and economic conditions in New York City at the time, and the realities of establishing a new life for immigrant families, students should be able to develop an argument with evidence to answer the compelling question “Did the American Dream come true for immigrants who came to New York?”
