With the 2016 election fast approaching, the topic of immigration has once again been thrust into the forefront of American politics. In an effort to gain the upper hand on their opponents, presidential candidates from across the country have each—some more loudly than others—offered many creative remedies for the current immigration “crisis.” Every American has an opinion on this matter, but when approaching this very complex question, it is important to consider and review the past and learn from the unique immigration history of the United States. In historical terms, the immigration ‘crisis’ of current is not unique, in fact the wave of immigrants from the Global South continues a history of mass migration that has existed long before the founding of the United States and the European monetary union. We must learn lessons from the past so that we do not repeat it. This blog series will explore this history and its relevance to what is happening today, especially in the United States. It will examine past immigration cycles and compare them to current trends in order to inform our audience. We hope it will generate a discussion to enable us to learn from the past and understand why the “question” of immigration will never go away; and why it is equally as pressing in contemporary times as it was 150 years ago.
The Immigration Problem
The “problem” of immigration has long been a subject of scrutiny by Americans, regardless of whether they happen to be a government official or an interested citizen. United States policy regarding immigration seems to exist in a constant state of flux, oscillating from a more restrictive stance, to a liberal one, and then back again depending on the conditions of the time. Although the overarching policy of the nation may fluctuate, the difficulty of being a stranger in a foreign country has remained constant. Outside of the founders of the country, primarily composed of Anglo-Saxons and a smattering of French fur-traders and friends of the Revolution, nearly every other demographic has encountered resistance and, all too often, outright hatred and persecution through the process of staking their claim to the American Dream. When observing the historical ebb and flow of immigration, this nearly automatic aversion to the “new wave” of immigrants on behalf of the American populace is made all the more ironic by the eventual success of these initially unwanted peoples.
In today’s world, many Americans conjure a distinct image in their mind when primed by the word “immigrant.” However, turn the clock back to the early 19th Century, and a vastly disparate image would have arisen. In fact, there existed a period when John F. Kennedy, one of the most recognizable and beloved presidents of this country’s history, would have been denounced as a part of a cohort that represented a dangerous challenge to what it meant to be American: the Irish. The waves of Irish immigrants that entered the United States in the 19th Century brought with them an alien religion, an unknown culture, and values that were perceived to challenge the status quo. As a result, native-born Americans of the era harbored a general fear of these newcomers, and out of their fear, resentment and hatred were fostered.
Often depicted as a mindless rabble of drunkards, the strong Catholic influence within the Irish community only served to lower their standing in America, while increasing the stigma linked to them. The anti-Irish sentiment that prevailed in antebellum America permeated nearly every corner of the country. These immigrants were outwardly and blatantly opposed. In offering his observations of the affair, one correspondent of the New York Times described the scenario the Irish were ushered into:
“From the hour they land to the hour they die, they are despised and spit on, and in thousands of cases they die without the last rites of the Church, or any of the consolations which at home would smooth their dying pillows… I solemnly believe, that if the vessels which bring them over were to suddenly founder, and carry every creature on board into the depths of the ocean, they would have a better chance of salvation than they have after they have lived for some time in this country.” (Warnings against Emigration. New York Daily Times (1851-1857); Sep 21, 1855; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times pg. 4.)
From the famous 19th Century Cartoonist Thomas Nast, this 1870 Political Cartoon is the typical depiction of a 19th Century Irish immigrant. Thomas Nast, “A Cartoonist Depicts “The Usual Irish Way of Doing Things”,” HERB: Resources for Teachers, accessed October 7, 2015, http://herb.ashp.cuny.edu/items/show/640
It was a truly miserable existence for the newly arrived Irish immigrants; they were often subject to the most dangerous and undesirable jobs the country had to offer. Nearly all arrived steeped in generations of poverty with no job skills or experience, and thus, they were forced to accept any job they could, assuming an employer was willing to hire an individual that carried such a powerful stigma.
For many decades, until well beyond the Civil War, the American populace’s aversion to Irish immigrants continued to be the prevailing sentiment of the country. However, the socio-political factors that had previously hindered the ability of Irish-Americans to prosper gradually began to change toward the end of the 19th Century. Now with several generations firmly in place, the Irish felt more confidence and had more capability to assert their rights. Therefore, they gained access to many social and political institutions that allowed them to rise through the layers American society. By the middle of the 20th Century, the Irish were no longer an afterthought in the United States. In fact, over the years, some of the most powerful and wealthy figures in the country were of Irish descent. This drastic transformation begs a very obvious and important question: what changed? More specifically, what influenced the average American-born citizen to stop viewing the Irish as a threat to their society?
The answer to this question is a complex amalgam of factors. Perhaps most obvious, the simple passage of time had a substantial impact on the ethnicity’s transformation of status. The American populace’s prolonged exposure to the Irish offered proof that they were not the drunk, incompetent, and dangerous papists they were routinely depicted as throughout much of the 19th Century. The Irish endured many tribulations to alter America’s perception of them, and this was not achieved before thousands fell victim to persecution, wretched labor conditions, and many years of an existence as second class citizens. In addition, the advancement of time brought with it many important changes in the economic, political, and social systems of America, changes which benefited the status of the Irish in America.
Equally as important, the latter half of the 19th and the early 20th Centuries ushered in a new wave of immigrants from increasingly unfamiliar areas of the world. Peoples from Italy, Eastern Europe, China, and Mexico began to consist of the bulk of incoming ethnicities to the United States. With these new immigrants came novel fears from American citizens; once again, they perceived the sacred values that the United States was built upon were under threat. These new immigrants, who brought with them traditions and customs presumably far more unorthodox than the much-maligned Irish pastime of alcohol consumption on the Sabbath, took priority for the brunt of the nation’s skepticism. With America’s citizens focused on reducing this threat and assimilating the new immigrants, the Irish, with some exceptions, were allowed to quietly fade into the fabric of American society.
Today, surnames like O’Leary or Morrissey are equally reminiscent of the model American citizen as Jefferson or Franklin. Although it was an arduous process of more than a century, those of Irish descent now enjoy a social status and respect no different than the ancestors of those credited with this country’s foundation. The ethnicity’s atmospheric rise from society’s bottom rung is not simply an issue that is cemented in the past, nor is it a development that will plateau and remain forever crystallized. On the contrary, the American conception of citizenship and to whom it applies is constantly being altered by countless factors, both domestic and international, that are unique to that specific time. That being said, it seems that American citizens, given the plethora of cultures and ethnicities that compose this country, have always defined the American citizen by what it is not. For a while, an American was not an Irish immigrant; in fact, an American was the antithesis of everything the Irish were perceived to represent.
Ultimately, like most newly-arrived immigrants, we have seen that the Irish suffered prejudice and oppression from the American populace. However, the Irish are clearly not viewed as an ethnicity that connotes vice in contemporary America; in fact, they are celebrated as a people rich in culture and history within the United States, today the Irish are recognized and celebrated as a central part of American culture. In considering this transformation, we must ask ourselves, what changed? Only then can we realize the struggle of immigrants—a struggle that continues today. In our next entry, we will flesh-out what this transformation looks like, as well as what it means for immigrants today.