The Potato Blight of 1845 caused an insurgence of Irish immigrants to come to America. The fungus destroyed potato crops, a major staple of Irish food, and caused a deadly famine. Fears were wide spread, as 1 million Irish had died from the famine, another half a million set sail for a better life in America.  Before the Potato Blight, many Irish were on the move to America due to the poor living conditions in that country. According to a Library of Congress article, an estimated 4.5 million Irish arrived in America between 1820 and 1930. Between 1820 and 1860, the Irish made up over one third of all immigrants to the United States. In the 1840s, they made up nearly half of all immigrants to this nation (p.2).

          According to the Library of Congress article, Irish immigrants often entered the workforce by taking the basic jobs and the most dangerous jobs that most other workers tended to avoid. Most Irish women became servants or domestic workers. The men worked in coal mines and built railroads and canals. The Irish endured deliberate and subtle job discrimination. Some businesses took advantage of Irish immigrants’ willingness to work at unskilled jobs for low pay. Employers were known to replace uncooperative workers and those demanding higher wages with Irish laborers (p.3). Because of their willingness to take the lesser positions, the Irish immigrants were subject to prejudice and discrimination.

          In the early nineteenth century, large numbers of Irish and blacks were forced to vie for similar jobs, which caused a lot of race related problems within the two groups. The culture of the Irish Immigrants and the Africa Americas were very similar at the time, both had low social and economic status and over the course of a century began to advance in similar fields like sports, entertainment, religion and politics. Both groups also possessed similar problems within the cultures, such as alcoholism, and tendencies toward violence. The Irish and Blacks felt they were being unfairly treated, and often because of the other ethnic group. In the South, Blacks were still considered property, and the ‘owners’ valued their lives, therefore the Irish were often chosen to do the dangerous work. Thousands of Irish lives were lost in the building of the nation's canal and railroad systems, according to the Library of Congress article (p. 7).

         The Irish immigrants were poor when they arrived in America. They primarily lived in large cities, in cold and disease filled basements. They endured high rates of cholera, yellow fever, tuberculosis and pneumonia. According to Kevin Kenney, in New York City in 1859, 55 percent of all the people arrested were of Irish decent (p. 5).

          The Catholic religion was also brought to America, with the large number of Irish immigrants. There were many disagreements concerning the way the religion was run, and the way that Catholics schooled their children by the popular religion of the time, Protestants. According to Kevin Kenney, anti-Catholicism remained a part of American culture until 1960 when John F. Kennedy, an American born Irish-Catholic became president. Over time, Irish immigrants became law abiding, upstanding citizens, and demonstrated that assimilation does not always have to be one group conforming to the normal society of a country.

          Dual labor market was a factor to these early immigrants. The Irish Americans were certainly subjected to a dual labor market. During the late 1800's, after the first large Irish immigration into America, Irish immigrants were considered to be the poorest of all the immigrants coming into the United States. Because of the constant prejudice against Irish, they were kept at this poor standing by only being offered the lowest paying, and the most backbreaking jobs available, leaving the higher paying jobs for natural American citizens. In the early stages of Irish immigration the fact that they were forced to take low paying, low skilled jobs is the proof of this type of discrimination. In today’s America, the dual labor market jobs are still being filled, but now the ethnic group is no longer the Irish, but the Latino population. In today’s culture, most Americas can closely relate themselves to the mainstream American culture, as opposed to the culture of their immigrant ancestors.

 

 

 

 

Reference

Kevin Kenney. (2008, February).Irish Immigrants to the United States. America.gov.

         Retrieved  April 3, 2009 from http://www.america.gov/st/diversity- 

         english/2008/February/20080307131416ebyessedo0.6800043.html