SOURCE: Fine, David M. “Reformers, Americanizers, and Cosmopolitans: The Case for the Immigrant.” In The City, The Immigrant, and American Fiction, pp. 16-37. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1977.

In the following essay, Fine analyzes the writings of those who sought to assimilate rather than exclude American immigrants. Focusing on “tenement tales” of the late nineteenth century, Fine explores the development of the “melting pot” ideal in which some immigrants would be indoctrinated into American values.

To the urban reformers of the eighties and nineties the tenement house, the slum environment, and the sweatshop were the factors most directly responsible for the failure of the recent immigrant to assimilate with the native population. To those who saw the need to “elevate” the immigrant by exposing him to the best in American life, the overcrowded and squalid living conditions of the newcomer stood as the chief obstacle. Behind the concern for...