Italian & Irish Immigration Comparison

Immigration is a loosely used term to describe one’s exit from a country to reside in another country. Immigration happens when one is usually unsatisfied with their current living situation and when one plans to move on and make a change. To talk about Italian and Irish immigration, they are two very similar instances that go back in history. Particularly dealing with American immigration, the Italians and the Irish both had their hardships, but prove to withstand the difficulties.

Irish Immigration

Dealing with the Irish immigration history, it was worth noting that two million Irishmen and Irish women migrated to America from 1820 to 1860. This was the result of the Great Irish Famine (also known as the great hunger). Many died crossing the ocean because of disease and bad conditions, but that didn’t stop the ones that sought after new beginnings. Immigration had greatly increased in the 1820s due to the need for labor in canal buildings, lumbering, and civil construction works in the northeast. Most immigrants to America favored the large city scene because they could create their own communities for support and protection in a new environment. Also, most of the Irish immigrants couldn’t afford to move inland to rural developments. Countless other Irish immigrants were part of the Westward Expansion. Dealing with how the Irish were portrayed, they were commonly referred to as being inferior citizens. Young Irish women immigrated in mass waves. The way they dealt with poverty was abundant; some turned to prostitution; others served as house nannies, cooks, babysitters, and cleaners. Prejudice Americans viewed all of the Irish as hotheads, violent people, and drunks. There was a certain amount of literacy between all Irish Americans; there were the monolingual Irish speakers, monolingual English speakers, and the bilingual citizens. When the Irish settlers arrived, their occupations differed; but the majority of them tended to stick together. Farming was the most common earlier in time, followed by being a laborer (in various fields), nuns, and clergy, and some even resumed an unemployed position barely staying alive. As time progressed, the Irish progressed to fill in more positions with heavy demand. For starters, they took local government positions (teaching, policing, fire-fighting, being a medic). Even more recently, we have seen many in higher government positions. In regards to their religion, the Irish were typically divided into two large belief groups. There are Protestants and then there are the Catholics. Depending on which country and region an Irish immigrant came from, this dictated which subgroup of religion they belonged to. The Irish Protestants and the Irish Catholics were actually considered to be one in the early immigration period but then split up over time to denote their ethnic backgrounds. Protestants were largely Scots-Irish. Both religions ended up keeping their distance. Irish journalists scoured the cultural landscape for evidence of insults directed at the Irish in America. While parishes were struggling to build schools for the children, many Catholic children attended public schools. Prejudice against Irish Americans reached an all-time high with the “Know-Nothing Movement”, which tried to oust Catholics from public office. The movement ended up vanishing a couple of years later. Irish Catholics were popular targets for stereotyping in the 19th century. Media portrayed them as boss controlled, violent, people that voted illegally, prone to alcoholism, and dependent on street gangs. They were subjectively attacked in political cartoons. Getting specific with the discrimination, it differed by gender. The typical Irish woman, “Bridget”, was known to be a “reckless breeder”, “stupid”, and an “incessant child bearer”. On the other hand, Irish men, “Pat”, was known to be “lazy”, “shiftless”, and “brain dead”. Adding to the irrational statements, Darwinists believed that since the Irish were “Celts”, they were inferior; thus, deserved second-hand citizenship. To top off the insults, they were known to have inferior intelligence. The reasoning comes behind a lack of objective information; however, the information pointed to the Irish being at the top of the charts in arrests and imprisonments. They also had the most people in insane asylums and poor houses than any other ethnical group. To this day, many Irish descents retain a sense of Irish heritage. Irish independence from the United Kingdom encouraged the hope that descendants who had retained a cultural connection would resettle there, opposed to attracting immigrants from other cultures. This sense of exile and nostalgia was a common theme. Regardless of their struggles, they still live happy, productive lives in America.

Italian Immigration

Similar to the Irish culture, the Italians also faced some difficulties adjusting to the melting pot that we call America. From 1890 to 1950, 13 million Italians migrated out of Italy. When arriving, they initially struggled to pick up the English language. It also didn’t help that they had little to no formal education. This would lead them to become employed for a low wage, manual labor jobs just to make ends meet. As if their career paths weren’t difficult to attain already, they were subjected frequently by middlemen who acted as intermediates between the Italian immigrant and the employer. Getting passed the low wage jobs, Italian immigrants started to branch out from the typical status-quo. For example, there were peasant farmers that immigrated due to the poor soil and economy of Italy. They also were involved in the construction industry. They built railroads, skyscrapers, and houses. Other Italian immigrants had taken factory jobs (which required little skill). Ever since the Italian Unification in 1861, Italy’s economic conditions worsened. This was the main cause of the exile of future Italian immigrants. Other contributions to their exit would include political and social unrest, government allocation of funds and assets to the industrialization of the north versus the south, soil exhaustion and erosion, and military conscription and drafting. It then became untenable for sharecroppers tenant farmers, small business owners, and even landowners. 49% of the Italian immigrants between 1905 and 1920 did not remain in America. The “Birds-of-Passage” were the immigrants that intended to stay for a limited time, followed by a return to Italy to re-establish their financials. The other immigrants stayed in America, or were prevented from returning to their roots due to the outbreak of World War I. Italian males were most often employed in manual labor positions (construction, sewage, subways, bridges, and house building), often dealing with public works. Italian women worked as seamstresses in the garment industry or in the comfort of their own homes. Many established small businesses in the Little Italies (community-tied cultural neighborhoods and ghettos) to satisfy day to day needs of other immigrants. In spite of the economic hardships of immigrants, civil and social life flourished in Italian-American neighborhoods. Italian theaters, band concerts, choral recitals, puppet shows, mutual aid societies, and social clubs were available to the immigrants. An important event, “The Festa”, became an important connection to the traditions of ancestor villages in Italy. However, concerned with the luring of immigrants into rooming houses/bad employment contracts, Sarah Wool Moore pressed for the founding of “Society for the Protection of Italian Immigrants”. Assisting Catholic Italians, Pope Leo XIII dispatched a contingent of priests, nuns, and brothers. Destinations of many of the Italian immigrants were not only large cities on the east coast; but, remote regions like Florida and California were also a hot spot. They were drawn to these warmer climates by agriculture, fishing, mining, construction, and lumbering. Sometimes, it didn’t work out the best, as Italian immigrants were subjected to economic exploitation, hostility, and violence. There were also a large number of business ventures founded by Italians, one being the helping of creating some of Washington DC’s monuments. Conductors even contributed to the early successes of the Metro Opera of New York. Down the road, immigrants became involved in a wide range of topics; from entertainment and sports to politics, government, and the labor movement. To sum it up, Italians faced hardships that were eventually overtaken due to their diligent nature.

Summary

To summarize the key points, both Italian and Irish immigrants faced some serious hardships when arriving in America. Some even fled back to their native country because of how difficult it was to adjust. Nonetheless, the majority persevered and stood throughout history as two of the handful of the toughest nationalities on the planet.