Success as an immigrant means that they have achieved economic stability. Whether that is by having a stable job that pays well or being able to support your family and pay your bills every month. Most struggle at first but end up achieving this success, unlike the Irish immigrants. Irish immigrants failed at achieving success in America because they lacked the important skills needed to become successful, companies became anti-Irish and many worked low-class jobs. The Irish Immigrants lacked many skills that were needed for different jobs throughout America. Many had few or no urban or rural skills, except growing potatoes. Many had only a grade school education and very few had a high school education. This lack of education brought …show more content…
Some of the most important factors were that they had almost no skills for working in agriculture or urban society. This was because many only knew how to grow potatoes and Ireland was not industrialized by that time. Another factor was the fact that many people and companies became anti-Irish. The Irish did not know how to behave in the workplace and many joined unions so they were not reliable. Lastly, they worked in low-class jobs. They had to take the dangerous jobs no one else wanted because they were at the bottom of the social class and getting discriminated against by companies. Today some people are discriminated against because of how they look, speak or even sexual orientation. There are laws against it but it still happens. Some will not get chances to even show themselves because of those factors. Many people today are still racist and homophobic and will not give them the chances they deserve. For all they could know they could be great people. This relates to the Irish immigrants because they were sometimes not even given a chance and had to work very dangerous jobs because of their ethnicity. This caused them to be unsuccessful in American
How did the Irish immigrants come? In 1818 there were Irish immigrants,they came on the first steam service to go to the UK ,this was called the called Rob Roy. Within a decade, ships were also ferrying passengers,mainly to areas in liverpool.One pull factor for them was that they heard that England had a lot of isolated area that could be used for growing crops.One push factor is the potatoe famine.Starting, in 1845 the potato famine killed over a million men, women and children in Ireland and caused millions to leave the country.Many poor people grew potatoes for food. Potatoes grew on unhealthy soil, even in winter.When a potato disease called blight arrived, possibly in ships from America.It was a disaster. Potatoes went rotten, and were
In Hasia R. Diner’s book Erin’s Daughters In America she discussed the history of the lives of Irish immigrants, specifically women, before the Famine and after they emigrated to the United States. After the Famine, Irish citizens had to make drastic changes in their lives in order to survive, such as having more variety in food and the crops that they grew, and changing their marriage patterns and how often they had children. Many people even decided to immigrate to America, the majority of which were women. When Irish women came to America their lives were greatly revolutionized when they were forced to adopt new economic opportunities by finding a job quickly and gaining economic stability, and they had to modify their marriage patterns by getting married later in life, if they got married at all.
The Irish experience in the U.S. was harsh. They fled Ireland due to the Potato Famine, and arrived here for opportunity, and even more importantly, a better life. They were also exceedingly poor, so that being
The book, “The Irish Way” by James R. Barrett is a masterpiece written to describe the life of Irish immigrants who went to start new lives in America after conditions at home became un-accommodative. Widespread insecurity, callous English colonizers and the ghost of great famine still lingering on and on in their lives, made this ethnic group be convinced that home was longer a home anymore. They descended in United States of America in large numbers. James R. Barrett in his book notes that these people were the first group of immigrants to settle in America. According to him, there were a number of several ethnic groups that have arrived in America. It was, however, the mass exodus of Irish people during and after the great
The Irish people would have freight, terror, death and eventually peace with these changes. The potato famine started with blight being discovered by European farmers. The Irish government started to export potatoes and grains to continental Europe to help the Europeans avoid a famine (Smith, 2011). By the end of August of 1845, Ireland was freighted to find out that blight had found its way to their produce (Smith, 2011). The blight in Ireland set off a chain of events that led to the Irish people dying in more ways to get out of Ireland. The government started trying to feed their people by importing corn and grains for food (Smith, 2011). This was not enough to help the young, old and sick. Many of theIrish people were led to complete financial ruin. By the end of 1851 more than a million Irish had died due to hunger and disease exacerbated by malnutrition(Smith, 2011).The only answer for many Irish families was to take a risk and get on a coffin boat and flee to another country. North America was a safe haven for many Irish people. They dreamed of the life they would live in the U.S.A. Nearly 1 million people arrived in many cities which include New York, and Boston (Smith, 2011). When the Irish people arrived, it was a sad reality they did not think they would face. The conditions were despicable. Many families were moved into small rooms with no sanitation, ventilation, day light or electricity (Smith, 2011). The families were charged about $1.50 per week to live in extreme poverty (Smith, 2011). This led to unsanitary conditions for the communities. Diseases were able to thrive in those conditions and one of the more common disease was cholera . The Irish people usually stayed in close proximity to each other and would make a small Irish community. The Irish community strived to make money. They were only hired for unskilled jobs
When many think of the times of immigration, they tend to recall the Irish Immigration and with it comes the potato famine of the 1840s' however, they forget that immigrants from the Emerald Isle also poured into America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The assimilation and immigration of the Irish has been difficult for each group that has passed through the gates of Ellis Island or South Boston. Like every group that came to America, the Irish were looked down upon; yet, in the face of discrimination,
When many think of the times of immigration, they tend to recall the Irish Immigration and with it comes the potato famine of the 1840s' however, they forget that immigrants from the Emerald Isle also poured into America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The assimilation and immigration of the Irish has been difficult for each group that has passed through the gates of Ellis Island or South Boston. Like every group that came to America, the Irish were looked down upon; yet, in the face of discrimination, political, social and economic oppression, the Irish have been a testament to the American Dream as their influence in
The life of Irish immigrants in Boston was one of poverty and discrimination. The religiously centered culture of the Irish has along with their importance on family has allowed the Irish to prosper and persevere through times of injustice. Boston's Irish immigrant population amounted to a tenth of its population. Many after arriving could not find suitable jobs and ended up living where earlier generations had resided. This attributed to the 'invisibility' of the Irish.
These new groups, the Irish and German, were believed to be poorer and Catholic. The Know-Nothings took these traits as economic and cultural backwardness. This was one of the challenges these immigrants faced.
As one could tell from Michael’s inability to pay for secondary education, and the fact that he had to work on his farm to help feed his family from the age of nine, it is clear that Ireland was a poor country. Michael grew up in the time of America’s Great Depression, although he did not live in America at the time. Nonetheless, America’s depression had an international effect, affecting almost every country in the world, and Ireland was no exception. At the beginning of the Great Depression, the United States began to cut down on the number of immigrants they were letting into the country, because of their high unemployment rate. Once Ireland had less emigration, its unemployment rates began to rise as well, and therefore had a negative effect
Although today the United States are known for being the “Land of the Free”, it was not always so easy to feel the liberty that is supposed to be a god given right. As more people migrated to and throughout the USA, it become increasingly clear that not everyone was welcome. Stereotypes and prejudice actions became typical for settlers to become involved in and made life hard for many ethnic immigrants throughout the United States. For those peoples from Ireland along with African Americans and the native people, life was extremely difficult to live when those settlers around did not except them beyond the steroetypes placed over their heads. Known for being “less than” and savages, these people had to work harder than their peers to make
The turmoil of the second decade of the twentieth century gave way to a greater sense of peace and stability in the third, with a peace treaty signed between Ireland and Britain in December of 1921 and Home Rule finally established for most of the Irish isle (Ferriter, n.d.). At the same time, this new society did not lead to instant prosperity, and indeed poverty remained a major and growing problem in Ireland during this decade (Ferriter, n.d.). Economic and social problems that persisted during this decade certainly could have been pushes to increased immigration.
All ethnic groups who came to the United States went through hardships. This went against the desire of having a better life. The Irish and the Japanese have suffered in similar ways since first stepping on American soil: They were competing against other ethnic groups for jobs and places to live.
During the emigration period, there was a rapid growth in the population of Ireland. It reached over 8,500,000 people. It was paradoxical because there was a famine but population increased in a fast way (Grada 118). As it was mentioned before, there were too many people in Ireland but there wasn’t enough food or work places. People looked for new jobs during the time of the famine. Approximately, three million people were in desperate situation because they were farmers and their staple food was potato but the nature did not allow doing their job. The famine destroyed everything they had so they supposed to find new jobs at workhouses and soup kitchens. If they did not find proper place for themselves, they had to make a decision for their future and that decision was the emigration (Grada 113). It can be referred that Irish society was shocked. They hadn’t come across such a difficult life conditions for years. Their main aim was to seek for a job which kept them alive. They rushed into every options of working. In other words, they did not want to lose their hope because they wanted to hold on to life. Otherwise, they wouldn’t think of
Many Irish then tried to immigrate to America. What used to be a small amount of immigrants, turned into a flood of Irish wanting to leave Ireland. Because of the high demand of people wanting to leave quickly, the normal route of stopping in Liverpool turned into a straight shot to America. Most immigrants died en route from diseases, and many died when ships frequently would sink, due to holding more than their maximum capacity. This was one reason for a tremendous drop in the Irish population.