Most of the persons interviewed were able to speak English readily.
They were people who were close enough to the great mass of immigrants
to be familiar with their problems, their needs, their shortcomings,
and their abilities, and at the same time were sufficiently removed
from the problems to be able to view them objectively. Some were
persons of more educational and cultural background than the majority
of immigrants, some of them had been born in this country or had come
when they were young children; but there were more who came to this
country from the same Old-World conditions as the majority of their
countrymen and had worked their way through the same hard conditions.
They were probably exceptional in their native ability.
No attempt was made to fill out a questionnaire from these interviews.
An outline was prepared of points to be covered, but frequently no
attempt was made to adhere to the outline. Rather, these persons were
encouraged to talk on the family problems in which they were most
interested, and to which they had given most thought--to enable us to
see them as they saw them with their knowledge of the Old-World
background from which their people had come. They were also asked to
suggest possible ways of meeting the more pressing needs of their
people.
Adequate expression can never be given to the obligation under which
those busy men and women who gave so generously and graciously their
time and their thoughts have placed us. Our very great indebtedness to
them is acknowledged, as without their aid this study in the present
form would have been impossible. The demand made upon them could be
justified only by the hope that the contacts thus established may
prove in some slight degree profitable to them if only in giving them
assurance that there are those to whom their problems are of real
interest.
The women from whom family schedules were obtained were slightly
different, and the information sought from them was obtained in a
different way. They were for the most part women who did not speak
English well enough to carry on an extended conversation in it. While
they were not very recent immigrants and hence were not going through
the first difficulties of adjustment, most of them were women who had
not yet worked their way through to the same place reached by the
women with whom the more general interviews were had. They were, in
general, very simple people, too absorbed with working out their
problems to have had much time for reflection. We asked them to tell
us of their early experiences and difficulties as they recalled them,
and of their present ways of treating some of the problems. This
information was taken in schedule form.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account