Learn how the waves of migrant workers during the Great Depression influenced writers of the time period in this half-hour video from American Passages. Migrant workers came to escape hardship or oppression at home, or for freedom of religion, but many wished to pursue the American Dream. After buying into the promises of this dream, however, many immigrants and migrants experienced a different reality. They discovered that only difficult low-paying jobs were available to them and that racism, prejudice, and hostility greeted them at nearly every turn. The writers discussed in the video offer glimpses of what it was, and is, like to be a marginalized person in the United States.