The Slovak and the Pole... are among the most industrious and patient people who come to our shores... Even on board ship they are the most patient passengers, for hardships are not new to them.

Far from destroying relationships among kin and reducing immigrants to rootless individuals, migration across the Atlantic strengthened family and kinship ties. Families were the basic resource in effecting the immigrants' transition to their new environment. Most immigrants settled in neighborhoods populated by people from the same home village, who provided information about urban life, offered temporary housing, and assisted in finding work.

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