Overview Of Irish Immigrants To America

Immigrants to America have played a major role in shaping the America that we know. These individuals have had to content with discrimination, prejudice, and a less than warm welcome. For many, it has taken generations for them to be an accepted part of our society. Two of these groups were the Irish and Jewish immigrants. These immigrants suffered hardships in their home countries, immigrated to America where they perhaps endured different hardships, but eventually, became an accepted part of our society by most.

The Irish were among the first group of immigrants referred to as the “old wave” or “old immigration” in the early years of the nineteenth century; however, the Irish presence dates back to the colonial days in America (Schaefer, 2012). In respect to the “old wave”, the Irish people immigrated to America seeking a better quality of life. In their homeland, they were experiencing the ripple effect because of the industrial revolution. Unemployment rose as machines introduced into production decreased the need for people. In essence, the industrial revolution was taking away the long-established way of life for many. The Irish immigrants arrived in America most with little education or skills. They were a willing and hard working population. Upon arrival, they settled in the cities where they were able to find employment providing the unskilled labor needed to advance the industrial revolution in America. Interestingly enough the industrial revolution was both the push and pull factor for the Irish. Where it displaced them in their home countries, the industrial revolution provided them livelihood in host country. The Irish immigrants created safe havens within the cities that provided “miniature social worlds …. solidari...

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...ons of Jewish immigrants did not “enter into mainstream occupational structure at the bottom, as immigrant laborer groups tended to. They used the resources generated by the entrepreneurship of early generations to gain access to prestigious and advantaged social class positions” (Healey, 2012, p. 60).

These two groups of immigrants have established themselves in different ways into our culture. They suffered discrimination and prejudice, and today are accepted and united “descendants of the immigrants with the dominant group…” (Healey, 2012, p. 82).

Works Cited

Healey, Joseph. (2012). From immigrants to white ethnics. Race, ethnicity, gender, and class: The sociology of group conflict and change. (6th ed., pp. 53-82). Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press

Schaefer, R. (Ed.). (2012). Racial and ethnic groups. (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.