In an immigrant nation, it's the question that is always asked of newcomers, the question that dates back to the arrival of the first members of the second group. There's no sense of its being a problem. It wasn't a problem. Not everyone agrees.
Many groups look back to the past and romanticize it.
Things were better, or the ascent was faster than it actually was. Before then, Eastern European Jews moved up through business, especially the garment, fur, shoe and retail trades. Most Jewish children left school with an eighth-grade education at best. They left as soon as they were old enough to get working papers. There were jobs.