Ghetto
Origin
Italian, from Venetian dialect ghèto island where Jews were forced to live, literally, foundry as the first ghetto founded in Venice in 1516 was on the site of a foundry. (located on the island), from ghetàr to cast, from Latin jactare to throw
Definitions
- 1: a quarter of a city in which Jews were formerly required to live
- 2: a quarter of a city in which members of a minority group live especially because of social, legal, or economic pressure
- 3a : an isolated group <a geriatric ghetto>
- b : a situation that resembles a ghetto especially in conferring inferior status or limiting opportunity <the pink-collar ghetto>
Description
The term ghetto became more widely used for ghettos in occupied Europe in 1939-1944, when the Germans reused historic ghettos to confine Jews prior to their transportation to concentration and death camps during the holocaust. The definition of "ghetto" still has a similar meaning, but the broader range of social situations, such as any poverty-stricken urban area.
The development of ghettos in America is closely associated with different waves of immigration and internal urban migration. The Irish and German immigrants of the mid-19th century were the first ethnic groups to form ethnic enclaves in America’s cities. This was followed by large numbers of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, including many Italians and Poles between 1880 and 1920. These later European immigrants actually were more impregnated than blacks in the early twentieth century. Most of these remained in their established immigrant communities, but by the second or third generation, many families were able to relocate to better housing in the suburbs after World War II, as they assimilated and prospered.
These ethnic ghetto areas included the Lower East Side in Manhattan, New York, which later became notable as predominantly Jewish, and East Harlem, which became home to a large Puerto Rican community in the 1950s. Little Italys across the country were predominantly Italian ghettos. Many Polish immigrants moved to sections like Pilsen of Chicago and Polish Hill of Pittsburgh, and Brighton Beach is the home of mostly Russian and Ukrainian immigrants.[1]
