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Confronting Racial Bias
Women Breaking Barriers
Seeking a Better Life
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Seeking a Better Life
Coming to Work Hope & Hardship Newcomer Networks Creating a Home

Surprising but True! The largest wave of immigration in history swept America a century ago, in the early 1900s. In Brooklyn, it continues today in almost equal numbers. Newcomer Networks

Men and women coming to Brooklyn often turn to fellow immigrants from their homelands to find valuable connections and community networks for housing and jobs.

Generations of immigrants to Brooklyn have found employment in construction and on the waterfront, as housekeepers, or as factory workers. Even those who were educated professionals in their homelands face barriers of language and cultural bias, forcing them to take unskilled jobs when they arrive.

Longshoremen 'If they were in with the right crowd, they worked and they made money. . . The Italians lived on one side of the Gowanus Canal and the Irish lived on the other side. And one didn't cross from one side to the other because they were invading the other one's territory.'
Longshoremen
About 1935
Collection of Brooklyn Public Library – Brooklyn Collection
'When Arabic speaking people come to Brooklyn, they usually find their way here to Atlantic Avenue. If our store doesn't need any new people — I send them down the block. A newcomer might have great computer skills, but until their English is in place, they might have to settle for a cashier position.' Sahadi's Grocery
Sahadi’s Grocery
1980’s
Courtesy of Jim Kallet

Brooklyn Public Library The Brooklyn Historical Society