When immigrants have come to the United States, many ended upliving in deplorable conditions, enduring poverty while theylearned English and acquired job skills. In many cases, as a resultof these difficult living conditions, they were mobilized bypolitical parties (or by individual candidates) who believed theimmigrants could become a loyal and highly-motivated bloc ofvoters. Many immigrants bought into this idea-- that living in afree country meant being able to vote, and they were excited to doso. (Other immigrants came from countries where there was no suchtradition as democracy, and they did not see voting as veryimportant.) However, more often than not, immigrants were mobilizedby candidates who understood their concerns and spoke their nativelanguage.Historically, not all politician