...PATHFINDER Immigration into the US in the Early 20th Century A Comparison of European vs. Asian Immigration With a Focus on the Chinese and Irish Experiences Name: Colin McGowan Names of Members in Partnership: Colin McGowan, Kathy Cybulski, Billie Moore, Beth Brickley School / City: Hudson High School / Hudson, Ohio Workshop Location: “Crossing Boundaries” at Kent State University Curriculum / Subject Area: High School Social Studies Grade Level(s) / Intended Audiences: 9th-12th Grades Ohio Academic Content Standards: Social Studies – Grades 9-10 - People In Societies • INTERACTION • Standard 5 (A. Describe the waves of immigration to North America and the areas from which people came in each wave. B. Compare reasons for immigration to North America with the reality immigrants experienced upon arrival.) • DIFFUSION • Standard 9 – Explain the effects of immigration on society in the United States: a. housing, b. political affiliation, c. education system, d. language, e. labor practices, f. religion • GEOGRAPHY • Standard 8 – Explain how colonization, westward expansion, immigration and advances in transportation and communication changed geographic patterns in the United States. • Standard 9 – Analyze the geographic processes that contributed to changes in American society including: a. industrialization and post-industrialization, b. urbanization and suburbanization, c. immigration Specific...
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...Ethnic Groups and Discrimination In the early years of America the Irish immigrant population in America were very much hated. As a result of this the Irish populations were subjected to many forms of discrimination. In order to understand the reason for the discrimination one must understand the reasoning for the hatred. It all started with what seems to be two basic factors that lead to the hatred. The population of America at this time was predominantly Protestant or non Catholic Europeans. The Irish were die hard Catholics that did not seem to agree with the religious views of the other Euro-Americans at this time. However the main reason for the hatred and discrimination of the Irish was due to their poor living conditions, and their willingness to work for low wages. (Immigration of the Irish) These low wages made it harder for the already established Protestants to continue to find jobs. Because of their willingness to work for low wages the Irish inadvertently put themselves into a situation where the upper class with all the power in society could create a dual labor market. This effetely put them in a position where they could be oppressed by forcing the Irish to stay in unskilled labor jobs with little pay. One such example of the oppressive jobs that the Irish we forced to work were the building of the nation’s canal and railroad systems. (Immigration of the Irish) The reason for this was that slavery of the black population early on was still...
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...The majority of the Irish were potato farmers. In October of 1845 a serious rotting issue began killing off the potato farms (Spartacus). Typhus broke out and killed many Irish families. The main item in the Irish people’s diet was the potatoes. Due to the agricultural disaster people died from famine if Typhus did not get them first. By 1846 an estimated 350,000 people died (Spartacus). In search of a better life nearly two million Irishman emigrated to the U.S. When the first group of approximately 6, ooo Irishman arrived in the U.S. they suffered from discrimination. According to the Irish American Historical Society (IAHS) there were two major ports of entry; New York and Boston. A majority of the immigrants were poverty stricken which caused them to remain in the port they arrived. The influx in immigrants strained the society’s economy and created hatred. The Irishman was credited for all the economic problems they were now facing. The Irish Americans started being viewed as dirty, lazy and stupid. Competition for housing and jobs grew rapidly. The competition and hatred developed in to discrimination towards the Irish. The new Irish arrivals started being victims of employment discrimination. The employment ads placed in the newspapers always ended with, “No Irish need apply” (IAHS). Restaurants and hotels started posting signs advising people that Irish were not permitted at their establishment. Since the Irish could not find work they were...
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...Fact and Fiction of Irish Americans History of the Immigration Beginning almost 300 years ago Irish immigrants were among the first large groups of people to migrate to the New World. With years of wars, famine, and religious persecution in Ireland, these people came to America to build a new life. Not afraid of hard work the Irish came and built a life they could be proud of; although the Irish American believes that they have been victim of discrimination. NINA ‘No Irish Need Apply’ and WASP ‘White Anglo Saxon Protestant’ is and ingrained belief that the Irish American’s “remember” (Jenson, 2004). Another current issue is the unjust treatment of the Irish seeking political asylum in the United States (McElrath, 1997). The first Irish immigrants came in the 1580s to the Carolinas long before the founding of the United States of America. It is believed that possibly hundreds of thousands of Protestant Irish immigrated in these early years. This is contrary to the urban myth of the Irish Catholic American origins (Meagher, 2009). The next big migration of Irish to America was in the 1700s to 1820s. These immigrants assimilated easily into the American way of life as most prospered at a rate that could not have been conceived in Ireland. “Nearly half of General Washington’s continental arm, including 1492 officers and 22 generals, were of Irish descent” (American Immigration law Foundation, 2001, p. 1). Even with the influx of Irish throughout early history of America...
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...that I belong to include Native American, Irish American, and English. The one I’ve decided to discuss for this paper would be Irish American. I am very proud of my Irish heritage. Millions of Irish people have immigrated to America since the 1800s. When Irish immigrants came over to America, a majority of them had little to nothing. They looked for work to start new lives in a new country. Irish immigrants were very hard laborers. Irish American’s were segregated immediately upon arrival to America. They were unwanted and clearly unwelcome. They were sent to “poor” area’s to reside in and were forced to live in area’s the size of a small bedroom with their entire families. They were ill a lot of the time due to sewage and poor ventilation to where they were residing. Many also had mental illnesses caused from alcohol problems. Irish Catholic’s was also a big issue to Irish immigration. American’s were worried that Irish Catholic immigrants would not be loyal to the Church of Rome. Irish Catholic’s were very stereo typed. People thought that all Irish Catholics were violent alcoholics and were all in Irish gangs. Although it didn’t help them much, many Irish American’s did turn to violence when being faced with severe discrimination. Like anything else being stereo typed, few people took the time to actually get to know Irish Catholics and assumed that they were all the same. Due to discrimination and prejudice, it was extremely hard for Irish American’s to start new lives and...
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...with the ethnic group known as the Irish American. The Irish have a story that includes famine, discrimination, immigration, religious discrimination, and finally triumph in the face of adversity. The Irish ancestry is almost impossible to trace due to the tragic circumstances in which millions of Irish immigrants were forced to escape to the United States. I have personal experience trying to trace my ancestry back to Ireland and every investigation has ended the same there were no records kept back that far back due to how most of the residents from Ireland not only got to the United States, but also because of the condition of most Irish immigrants once they landed in the United States. In 1800 the Union of Ireland Act united The Kingdom of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland, in a short few years the Irish became impoverished and along with the religious prejudice of Protestant Masters to the Catholic Irish many had no choice to immigrate to the United States. In 1845, the great potato rot touched off a mass migration. The disaster eliminated the sole subsistence of millions of peasants, thrusting them over the edge of starvation. For five weary years, the crops remained undependable, and famine swept through the land. Untold thousands perished, and the survivors, destitute of hope, wished only to get away (Handlin, 1972). The United States would be the next step in the Irish story, although the trip would not be easy, many Irish paid $15 to board leaky boats that...
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...April 2013 Irish Immigration and Nativism Immigration to the United States has shaped our country from its founding to the present day. The United States went through a large agricultural and industrial expansion in the 19th century and with that came a large wave of immigration from Western Europe. During this time Ireland’s potato crop became diseased, causing widespread famine and the country went through a period called the Great Hunger. These two factors were instrumental in the almost 3.5 million Irish that immigrated to American between 1820 and 1880. The Irish met with much adversity when they arrived here. A wave of nativism toward their religion, and also poverty made life difficult in the beginning. The Irish had faced adversity and oppression before, but their solidarity along with their strength and religious beliefs made it possible for them to find a better life by striving for success economically, politically and socially. Irish immigrants arrived here with very little education or skill set and jobs were hard to find. They came from poverty so they had little money or resources to start a business. Many of them did not want to return to farming because of their experience in Ireland. Women found jobs as maids, cooks, nannies or factory workers. Because of the country’s large industrial expansion many of the male immigrants worked long hard hours building bridges, railroad and canals for very low wages. Americans were not happy the Irish were taking...
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...practice? What is something you admire about this group’s people, lifestyle, or society? 1. The German Americans are the largest singles source of ancestry of individuals that are in the United States today. The German Americans settled in the United States in the late 1700’s, they came because of their religious dissenters such as the Amish who were attracted by the proclaiming of religious freedom. Even though the German Americans started coming in the late 1700’s it wasn’t until the 1830’s through 1890 the German immigrant population represented one quarter of the immigration. During World War I most of the German Americans distanced themselves away from their home land, by the ending of the twentieth century the animosity that was towards Germany fell distant. That is because of John F. Kennedy being in Berlin in 1963 and Ronald Reagan in 1987 and they both spoke of uniting Germany. Present days the immigration from Germany is between 5,00 and 10,00 annually. Some customs that the Germany Americans may practice still while in America would be their language. They would even continue to cook their dishes, and open up German bakery stores. Something that I admire of the German Americans would be that even though the Germans in their homeland did horrific things during World War I and World War II, they didn’t act upon it. They stayed true to themselves by being the German Americans they chose to be by coming to...
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...This week the reading and lecture material covered the immigration of the Irish and Jews. Chapter six covers the immigration of the Irish, and explains that the Irish people fled the English that were taking claim over their farms and crops. Many of the Irish came to America for the promise of a better life after the English took over, and others left their home countries after the Great Famine. The Great Famine was the potato famine that occurred in Ireland, it had caused one million people to die from hunger and sickness. Since the Irish, were not able to sell their potatoes for money, many were evicted from their homes. This caused one and a half million more Irish people to flee to America. Chapter eleven covers the immigration of the Jews...
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...1 Ethnic Groups and Discrimination ETHNIC GROUPS AND DISCRIMINATION SCOTTISH 2 The first Scots began coming to the New World in the early 1600's, Emigration picked up during the Cromwellian Civil War in Britain, as many Scots from both sides were transported to the American Colonies in the mid-1600’s. The Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745 also saw numbers of Scotsmen transported to America, as did the Highland Clearances which came somewhat later. Scottish emigrants who had gone to Northern Ireland as colonists of the Ulster plantations in the first half of the 16th century also immigrated to America in the early 1700's. These people, who were referred to as the "Scotch-Irish" were by far the most numerous group of Scottish Colonists to come to America. Between 1715 and 1776 some 250,000 of them arrived, mainly in the Chesapeake Bay region, and settled all along the east coast, particularly in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, North and South Carolina and later in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and beyond. A second wave of Scottish immigration came during the late 1800's and most of these Scots settled in the northeastern U.S. in the larger industrial cities, and included such worthies as Andrew Carnegie and Alexander Graham Bell. (Craig Cockburn) Some were transported; they had no choice other than prison or execution, the reasons ranging from political prisoners...
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...The Irish that migrated to Boston in the early 19th century had many things in common when we talk about their phases of migration and immigration with the Chinese that came to California in the 19th century. The Irish and the Chinese had similar mentalities when they first immigrated to the New World, both saw a better life hoping and trying to plan to make enough money and return home and buy some land. With such a mindset both parties were able to put up with abuse and was very reluctant to join unions since they were only sojourners. Both groups, the Irish and the Chinese were transnational which meant they lived in two countries at the same time. The movement to America was “artificial” because of the poverty of the Irish that has been...
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...Irish Settlers in America The Irish immigrants faced prejudice, segregation, and discrimination. The Irish settlers are part of my heritage and the Ethnic group I chose for this essay. I had a very difficult time finding enough information for this assignment and I did not expect there to be so little information on this topic. I am not sure about the rest of my background but I have always been proud to be an Irish American descendent. That was until I read some of the ways they treated other immigrants in the new nation. Irish immigrants had a rough start in the United States, stuck in urban poverty and taunted by some of their neighbors. They and their descendants overcame the obstacles and prevailed (Kenny, 2008). Irish immigrants were not treated as bad as the African Americans were treated but were treated pretty closely. They did get a few extra benefits like being able to sell themselves as slaves instead of someone else selling you. As they arrived in American cities, they were crowded into districts that became centers of crime, vice, and disease and they commonly found themselves thrown together with free Negroes. Irish and African Americans fought each other and the police, socialized (and occasionally intermarried), and developed a common culture of the lowly (Barnett, Valla, and Williams). They also stated that ‘‘It is a curious fact,’’ wrote John Finch, an English Owenite who traveled the United States in 1843, ‘‘that the democratic party, and particularly...
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...The Irish Immigrant Experience Multiculturalism for Clinical Psychologists PSY 6010 R. Paul Johnson Saybrook University Abstract Popular media typically portrays the myth of the Irish-American experience as the story of starving paupers fleeing Ireland in old broken wooden ships and arriving in some unwanted land, such as Boston or New York. Always remaining in their dockside slums, working dockside as longshoremen until they were able to become police officers. This same myth continues to hold that their descendants continue to live in three storied houses within ethnic ghettos where they have big parades of St. Patrick’s Day. The reality of Irish immigration to America holds a much more complex story. This paper will provide some historical context of the experiences of Irish emigration as well as the immigrants themselves. The trauma associated with early emigration has had a lasting effect on this ethnic group which will also be evaluated herein. The Irish Immigrant Experience It was during the great famine of the 1840’s in Ireland that tens of thousands began to immigrate to America in hope of creating a better life for themselves and their families. Many fled to the Boston area and within one year Boston’s Irish population grew from 30,000 to nearly 100,000 ( Gordon, 1964). Upon arriving to the United States many of the new immigrants set out to find a job immediately, a majority of them finding positions as servants and in fact during this time...
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...course of American history America has served as a sort of safe haven for those who need to escape their previous situations in their own countries. These immigrants moved to avoid poor living situations, religious persecution, or just to have more opportunities in a new place. Though they faced many challenges, because of their perseverance they helped to make the United States of America grow and prosper to what it is today. In result of a poor harvest and a depression with the trade of linen in Ireland, Irish immigrants began flooding into the United States of America starting as early as 1729. When the American Revolution ended an estimated four hundred thousand Irish immigrants were living in America. During the sixty years...
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...| Irish American Ethnic Group and Discrimination | | University of Phoenix ETH/125 Elizabeth McBryde | In 1845, a fungus ruined Irish potato crops, which was the main source of food that kept peasants from starving in Ireland, and as disease and hunger spread throughout Ireland at least one million of Ireland’s people left in search of economic advancement, over half of which came to the United States (Peck, Ira). The Irish immigrants that came to the United States settled mainly in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia (Peck, Ira). Unfortunately, they were not greeted with welcome however, instead they, like many other immigrants to the United States, were met with discrimination, prejudice, and racism. Assimilation did not come easy for Irish immigrants despite their white skin and English language. Often, the only jobs available to them were hard, dirty, and dangerous positions such as coal mining and railroad work. As more and more Irish immigrated to the United States, American workers feared that the Irish, because of their cheap labor, would put them out of work (Peck, Ira). The Irish were treated in close resemblance to slaves. Forced to live in unsanitary conditions in urban slums by segregation, many Irish fell victim to epidemics that swept through their living...
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