Irish American Immigrants 19th Century

1363 Words6 Pages
Calvin Turner Professor Smith ENC 1101 12 November 2013 Irish American Immigrants Immigration played a big part in the growth of America. One group of immigrates that contributed to this were the Irish. The Irish had a rough time when migrating over during the nineteenth century. Irish Americans had to overcome a lot of things, such as, their living situation, the type of work they took on for horrible pay, and lastly the discrimination they endured from other racists. All of these problems were overcome one way or another but it took time. Irish Americans immigrants overcame a lot of struggle when coming to America in the nineteenth century. Indeed, Irish Americans had their struggles when it came to when, where and how they lived.…show more content…
If one doesn’t know what discrimination means, it’s when one group treats another group a certain way basic on certain things they may dislike. Therefore, most people today wonder why Irish American immigrants were discriminated and why they put up with discrimination. Among those people discriminating were homeland natives. For example, Kerby A. Miller quoted, “Many Americans considered the Irish as dirty, stupid and lazy” (322). In others words, Americans felt Irish Americans immigrants happened to be lazy drunks and didn’t belong here. Americans felt that Irish immigrants brought over diseases as well, for example, Kevin Kenney says, Irish immigrants endured high rates of cholera, yellow fever, tuberculosis and pneumonia (Kenney). These caused a big scare among Americans and perhaps cause some of the discrimination. Another form of discrimination also came in the work place, such as, when Irish immigrants need to find work. Richard Jensen says, “The Irish American community harbors a deeply held belief that it was the victim of systematic job discrimination in America, and that the discrimination was done publicly in highly humiliating fashion through signs that announced ‘Help Wanted: No Irish Need Apply.’” Unlike men women sometime had better opportunities; Richard Jensen writes, “newspaper ads for women sometimes did include NINA, but Irish women nevertheless dominated the market for domestics because they provided a reliable supply of an essential service” (Jensen 405). Americans felt by doing this it would drive Irish immigrants away and leave more jobs for Americans, this show how horrible society was and why there are regulations and laws today against that. Also, they felt that so many Irish people migrating in the cities would mean, “taxes would rise due to additional needs for police, fire, health, sanitation, schools and poorhouses,” according to
Open Document