Minorities Among Immigrants

Different ethnicities came to the United States at a time when the industry section was growing rapidly. The study for ethnic success was for the immigrants who came to the United States after 1880 and the Jews were singled out for special attention compare to the rest of the ethnicities. Due to their enormous success, they have been a topic for success for different sociologist and novelist with the same theoretical explanations, that is, the Jews were successful because of their ambition, unity and middle class values which was part of their culture. As Steinberg points out from the theory of one of the novelist which is, “….whatever the obstacles, the individual cam triumph by living an exemplary life and piously observing……concerning
hard work and moral rectitude (83). Many believe that Jews were successful because of their culture and middle class values, but Jews started out at the same status and financial level as other immigrants. Instead, it was actually their skills and literacy during the industrial revolution that made the Jews successful. The myth concerns about the Jews culture as the primary factor for their success, which Steinberg discusses, “…it can be attributed to the distinctive values that Jews carried over with them as part of their cultural baggage” (84).
Yes, it is of no doubt that one must have the ambition, skills and unity in order to achieve the stable financial level, but to declare a culture that has all those aspects as a tool for success is contradictive. It basically declares that a group which has not been successful is somehow deficient due to their culture, to which Steinberg points out, “it implies that groups that are less successful in the competition are somehow deficient in character or in their cultural values” (87). Another reason for Jewish popularity is the number of times they have been compared with other ethnicities who have not succeeded by various social scientist and other writers. Furthermore, an aspect to refer to is the middle class values that has been brought upon by many writers as the factor for success. It is basically a tale for everyone to follow the Jews because of their high mobility due to their exemplary culture and at one point, their religion too. As Steinberg states, “Thus it is in Jewish religion and culture, reaching back through the millennia, that these theorists locate the source of the values that account for the unusually high rate of Jewish mobility” (93). Middle class basically means, someone who is in between upper and working class and that their financial level is stable. The middle class values is in contrast towards: desire for education, aversion to violence, family unity and having financial
stability. Many thought that Jews had a stable financial level and that they had an advantage in terms of money as compared to other immigrants. However, they did not, therefore, Steinberg said, “….Jewish success stems from the assumption that Jewish and non-Jewish immigrants began life in America on an equal footing” (91). Jews were barely distinguishable compared to other ethnicities that arrived in the United States. They also had the same status level of being poor when they came here, but when the question is asked that how is it still that the Jews managed to go beyond, the answer to that is, “the answer most commonly advanced is that Jews possessed the right cultural values ” (Steinberg 92). But to challenge and prove that Jews did not have a greater financial level, the immigration records showed that how much money did the immigrants had when they came to the United States. Hence, “Over half the English and nearly a third of the Germans reported a $50 or more. But in the case of the Jews, the figure is only 12 percent, roughly the same as that for Irish, Scandinavian, Italian, and Polish immigrants arriving after 1880” (Steinberg 93).