...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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...Americanization of Immigrants and Native Americans In the late 1800’s immigration has increased immensely. Not only was the population growing but substantial problems went along with the immigration. In restatement, the immigrants came to America to find better opportunity upon a future they want to achieve. The types of immigrants were the Irish, Germans, Chinese, etc. These people wanted to seek for an opportunity to escape their religion, harsh government in their native country, and own land. As the population grew, the society had to change and step up to it’s capability of becoming a stable nation. Some of the significant things that occurred in the life of an immigrant in the society were economical and political problems. Some of the economical changes the immigrants have made, for example were the jobs they had to make money. Many of the 25 million immigrants that entered America between 1866 and 1915 became factory workers. However, for immigrants in the cities, factory work was one of the few options available. Agriculture jobs and factory jobs were the main areas of employment for a lot of former slaves and immigrants. In factories, they had poor lighting, unsanitary conditions, and the jobs were highly dangerous. Women, men and children were able to work in these conditions for up to 12 hours per day. As soon as one became ill or died another person would step over into their past job without a second thought. Another problem that occurred was the population...
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...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 of rebellions, to paupers, to petty thieves and criminals. Others came because of poverty. They had no hope of ever breaking out of their set place in the Class-system which existed in Britain, but in America, a man could...
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...THE CANADIAN HISTORY OF IMMIGRATNT WORKERS Canadian labour history is tainted by hatred, discrimination and fear of immigrant workers and immigration. This stems in part from Government sponsored racism and the capitalistic use of immigration as a means to defy the labour movement. We can start with the stereotyping and discrimination of the Irish in the 1840’s, our first large scale exploitable labour pool and move right through to today’s racial profiling and cultural unacceptance of Arabs and east Indians. Through our history the acceptance of immigrants gradually improve but even today we haven’t achieved an acceptable level of tolerance. Were not perfect but we eventually seem to learn from the mistakes of our past. After Mackenzie King and into the sixties government supported racism through our immigration department seemed on the decline. With the 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms Act being signed into the constitution we took a huge leap forward. However, this doesn’t erase a past full of discrimination and exploitation of immigrants by government, employers and labour. In Canadian history immigrant workers have been racially stereotyped, discriminated against and subjected to differing levels of acceptance within Canadian culture and the working class society. Immigrant workers found themselves in varying levels of distress upon arrival to Canada, being exploited by employers, shunned by labour and oppressed as second class citizens by government. This may be...
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...Immigration Citizens Children The Effects of Immigration on Children and Families Introduction Illegal immigration is a very controversial issue within our society. There are families within our society that are made up of parents that are here illegally but have children who are born here and are citizens. But it is these citizens that are what I am referring to as the incomplete citizens. Who are these incomplete citizens and why are they being impacted by our society? Are there different stipulations for these children that are born to these undocumented families? Do they really receive the same rights as those born to U.S. citizens? Our societies including our politicians have different opinions about illegal immigration. Immigration reform negatively affects those children that are born to undocumented parents. They find themselves facing adversities that had the situation been different would never have to face. Working in an elementary school I have seen first hand how those children are affected as a result of their parent’s legal status. My purpose in this research is to show the emotional, educational, and financial effects that are inflicted on the undocumented families. This is a problem that is not going to be resolved overnight but rather this is a problem that is going to need help from the various disciplines. With this research more information will be found to present how children are affected through the different disciplines and how these disciplines...
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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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...The Second Great Awakening was a resurgence of religious fervor in Americans beginning in the late-1700s and continuing into the mid-1800s. The shift of focus in religion to camp meetings and saving souls brought to the clergy not only a mission to improve themselves, but to improve their communities as well. The role of women in the home and denial from formal work or wages led to a movement led by women to improve their communities. Drinking was extremely heavy in the early to mid 19th century, with drunkenness causing many problems in factory productivity and an increase in domestic violence. The temperance movement in America worked to curb or completely prohibit alcohol consumption out of a religious motivation, much like the Puritans. The message of community improvement and religious activism made alcohol an easy target for the Second Great Awakening...
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...The Successes and Failures of the Irish Community Sociology of Developing Countries The Successes and Failures of the Irish Community Throughout history many communities were formed for many different reasons. Some communities were able to become successful cultures while others did not. The reasons why communities are successful stem from many different reasons. “Some theories conclude that communities thrive and others do not because of social capital, or network connections among residents and community groups,”… “In addition some researchers have determined social capital to be related to various aspects of community life, from crime rates to the local economy,” (Whitham, M. M. (2012 pg 442). The Irish community today is one that faced many obstacles. Their oppression in Europe and early America is reminiscent of the hatred that certain third world nationalist or minorities endure in America today. The cycle for which these oppressed communities have endured has caused their communities to either flourish or decline. In either way the community has reformed its customs and believes to adjust to the social ladder in which they attempt to overcome. “Community building commonly refers to building the social networks within the community, and developing group and individual problem solving and leadership skills,” (Paul Mattessich, 1997). In most cases communities are built around people of the same class, and ethnical back ground. This is often reasons why communities prosper...
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...just Manhattan Island. Four of its most populous outlying territories were annexed. Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and Richmond (Staten Island) increased the size of the city by almost ten times and the current population to over three million. However, getting around this new city on foot or horseback would take an obscene amount of times, so a system had to be made for the average person to get around. The first underground subway line opened in 1904, although there were many above ground trains taking people around the city, the brutal winters required a different approach. And they had the perfect workforce to get the jobs done. But with all the immigrants coming in at record-breaking numbers, it was deemed necessary to have an updated immigration port. A banquet hall named Castle Garden in Battery Park, Manhattan was charged with the task of welcoming the immigrants to America. The space quickly became very inadequate to hold all those persons at a time. So the Federal Government and NYC government built the famous walls of Ellis Island building on top of an abandoned ammunition island between Manhattan and New Jersey, right across from Liberty Island. It was opened on December 17, 1907 and averaged over 12,000 immigrants a day. It did not have a good...
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...Together as One Often described as a “melting pot”, the United States of America has a rich history of welcoming immigrants, with their many traditions and customs, with open arms. Before the founding fathers signed their declaration, the “New World” of America was already viewed as a safe haven and land of freedom for those escaping religious and social persecution. As our nation developed, the stream of immigrants increased, fueling industrialization through the mid to late 1800s. On the heels of the Industrial Revolution, immigration numbers spiked, leading to Emergency Quota Acts in the 1920s. Such restrictions continued through the rest of the century, changing the ethnic makeup of the United States. In recent years, heated discussions concerning immigration have emerged on the national political platform. As the nation’s leaders reevaluate the role of immigrants in the United States, from a legal perspective it is important to remember the influence such people have had on the nation’s social, cultural, and economical history. Since the founding of the United States, numerous legislative acts that have been passed by the government, in order to regulate the immigrants entering to America. In 1798, four such laws were passed by the United States Congress. Referred to as the Alien and Sedition Acts, these laws were created due to the fear of war with France, and they were intended to strengthen the Federal Government. Sponsored by the Federalist Party, the Acts...
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...Gonzalez 1 Rachel Gonzalez AP U.S. History Mr. Cranston 20 March 2015 Chapters 12 and 13 Essay Assignment Major themes of history evolve as time progresses. From the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, massive shifts occur. Regarding work, exchange, and technology; America in the World; politics and power; as well as ideas, beliefs, and culture, the evolution between the centuries have changed the significant themes throughout the United States. Work, exchange, and technology play a huge role in Americans lives throughout each century. People rarely used money; services and products were paid for mostly through trades and barters. Home and work were not separated; they were the same place. Nobody stuck to a schedule; things were done as needed. Skills were acquired through apprenticeship. An apprenticeship lasted from three to seven years. Apprentices lived with their masters during this time period, while trading knowledge for labor. However, women were not allowed to have such apprenticeships. Women gained knowledge of domestic skills through their mother, as it was assumed that the women would marry. Some women would work respectably as: servants, laundresses, seamstresses, cooks, and food vendors—or not respected as prostitutes. Men directed the lives of family members and apprentices: deciding occupations for sons, marriages for daughters, etc. Women (the wives) were responsible for: food, clothing...
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...Assignment Module 2 1. Explain why we say that race is a social construction and provide an example. • Race is a social construction because race is not static. The definition of race and what constitutes it has changed over the years. This is usually based on the biases and feelings of superiority among the dominant race who seek to create and enforce differences based on their own agenda. Race is an ever-changing thing. For example, with mass immigration to America in the late 1800s and 1900s, the term white was broken down into various categories, and not considered one race. There were the Irish, Italian, Polish, etc. all considered different races and discriminated against by initial “white” Americans. Gradually this changed where all groups merged to be lumped under one umbrella of the white race. This highlight how race has and continues to change based on...
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...to take up permanent residence”. Therefore, immigration in Unites States’ history dates all the way back to 1565 and the first European settlement in America or what they deemed as the ‘New World’ at the time. People choose to immigrate to other countries for various reasons, whether it is for safety, a chance at a new life, to experience another culture, or even just for the desire to explore the world. This essay focuses on the broad history of immigration in the United States, the various stakeholders’ in the issue and their stances and arguments, as well as organizing these arguments into different categories. The first wave of migration to hit America was The Great Migration that lasted between 1630 and 1640, a decade in which over twenty thousand Puritans escaped from Britain to America due to the disputes between the Puritans and King Charles I and Parliament. Between the 17th and 18th centuries, hundreds of thousands of immigrants arrived in America in order to colonize, with over half of the immigrants coming as indentured servants to the wealthier colonizers. These immigrants came from all across Europe and were all focused on establishing themselves as early as possible in America and to hopefully become rich and famous. The first stakeholder in the issue of immigration in the United States was the government and in particular, nativists. This is seen when the first law established that limited or restricted immigration to the United States was the Naturalization...
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...Ireland, also known as the Republic of Ireland, is a sovereign country member of the European Union that occupies most of the territory on the island that it is situated. While Northern Ireland decided to remain loyal to the English crown, the modern Irish State became independent from the United Kingdom in 1922, after signing the Anglo-Irish Treaty that concluded the Irish Independence War. The history of Ireland dates far back to 10,500 BC, with the first human evidence that has been found in the territory, but it wasn’t until the Iron Age that the Irish identity started developing, when the first Celtic language and culture emerged in the island, marking the beginning of a long history of cultural encounters and traditions. Regardless of...
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...the convulsions of a troubled dream."Daniel O'Connell in an 1831 letter to Bishop Doyle The conflict in Northern Ireland started in the late 1960’s, and officially ended with the “Good Friday” Agreement, signed in Belfast in 1998. If this duration is not questioned, what remains at the root of the conflict generally is. Spreading over almost thirty years, “The Troubles” have been divided down many lines: ethnically, geographically, and religiously. Therefore, in order to understand the complexity of Irish nationalism, as well as the role played by the various actors (political parties, paramilitaries, security forces of the UK and Ireland etc…), it is necessary to go back in time, in search of the very core of “the Irish Question”. Ireland was England’s first colony in the late 12th century, and after it had been brought under the ascendancy of the English Crown in 1534, the Irish Parliament appointed Henri VIII “King of Ireland” in 1541[1]. At this stage of history, the first religious disagreement came to light. Whereas Ireland pledged allegiance to Rome, England changed religion and became Anglican. In the 17th century, the “Britons in Ireland”- English protestants landlords and Scott settlers- colonized the Irish lands. While the colonists obtained fields in the plantations of Ulster, the protestant immigration settled in the unused lands of Antrim and Down. By the end of the 17th century, two conflicts had emerged...
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