Room in a Tenement House
This is what the inside living conditions were for immigrants during reconstruction
Rich Housing
This is what hosing for the rich looked like during reconstruction
I want to specifically point out the fact that they often had to have their kids work with them or also work to ensure that they had enough money to survive
I also want to point out the extremely cramped conditions that they had to work in.
Another issue was the horrible condition of the places they were living in they were almost always falling apart and violating a ton of building code violations.
today it is not uncommon for "Children as young as 7 and 8, many of them wearing clothes caked with snot and tears, are caring for infants they’ve just met, the lawyers said." New York Times when in the custody of U.S immigration agency.
Immigration has notoriously become very hard in the us it is not uncommon for immigrants to wait 3 or 4 years to be admitted to the united states through immigration systems.