No Irish Need Apply

By Beth Myers, Executive Director of STITCH

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all the Irish-Americans! If you are like me and most Irish Americans, your ancestors probably came over during the period between 1820 and 1930. This was before and during the potato famine, when desperate economic factors led many immigrants to migrate for survival.  It is estimated that as many as 4.5 million Irish arrived in America between 1820 and 1930.  Between 1820 and 1860, the Irish constituted over one third of all immigrants to the United States. In the 1840s, they comprised nearly half of all immigrants to this nation. And much like today, these immigrants were often met with suspicion and hostility.

From Answers.com:
In America, initial sympathy for the starving peasants gave way to anti-Catholic hostility as they began to arrive in droves, forming enclaves in Northern cities. In Boston, for example, immigration rates rose from 4,000 in 1820 to 117,000 in 1850. By the 1850s–1860s, 28 percent of all people living in New York, 26 percent in Boston, and 16 percent in Philadelphia had been born in Ireland. Irish Catholics also dominated immigration to Southern cities before the Civil War (1861–1865); New Orleans was the second-largest port of arrival after New York by 1850. Throughout the nation, work advertisements stated, "No Irish Need Apply," while nativist political parties like the Know-Nothings gained power. Hostility often turned violent, as in 1834 when mobs burned an Ursuline convent in Charlestown, Massachusetts. Such episodes were etched in Irish American memory, contributing to a separatist mentality long after they achieved success.

So, as you may head out to the bar this St. Patrick’s Day to raise a Guinness to the old country, you may want to think more about your ancestors’ journey and how that journey relates to the current situation for Latino immigrants in the United States. Below are some things to think over.

Read the below passage about Irish immigrants at the turn of the century:

“Irish immigrants often crowded into subdivided homes that were intended for single families, living in tiny, cramped spaces. Cellars, attics and make-do spaces in alleys became home. Not only were many immigrants unable to afford better housing, but the mud huts in which many had lived in had lowered their expectations. Irish immigrants often entered the workforce at the bottom of the occupational ladder and took on the menial and dangerous jobs that were often avoided by other workers. West Virginia coal operators fired union laborers and gave the jobs to Irish Immigrant workers because, “[the] coal company owned them.”

Does this sound like something people say today about Latino immigrants?

Also, during the May 1st marches last year, many commentators reacted strongly that immigrants should not carry the flags from their countries of origin, like Mexico.

Did you attend a St. Patrick’s Day event? Was the Irish flag present? Did anyone object?

Finally, did you know that there were still a large number of Irish immigrants coming to the United States, legally or with out documentation?

From the San Francisco Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/09/BAG7DO1K5D1.DTL

Elaine, a San Francisco nanny who wouldn't give her last name because she lacks legal immigration status, plans to leave her 6-year-old son with her sister and fly to the nation's capital to join the call for comprehensive immigration reform on March 7.

She said she feels a sense of commonality with illegal immigrants from Mexico, who make up the majority of the estimated 12 million people living in the United States illegally.

"We're all in the same boat," she said. "The Irish are lucky because we speak English and we're white: We do get treated better. But we (undocumented immigrants) are all hard workers. We all want a better life."

This St. Patrick’s Day, I will not only wear green but I will also take the time to say thank you that this country chose to let my ancestors come into this country. I will also recognize the contribution that many in my family and in the Irish community have made to the United States. AND I will continue to fight for a path to citizenship for ALL immigrants currently trying to build a better life and support their families. It’s the Irish way to fight for justice for the poor and I will keep that tradition alive.