Ethnic groups and discrimination
Abraham Levesque
University of Phoenix
Ethnic groups and discrimination
Irish people began to immigrate to America during the 18th century. The main reason that the Irish came to America was for survival. Their country was being plagued by the potato famine. The potato was the main source of food for the people of Ireland. In the first year of the potato famine 40% of the crop was wiped out, and 100% of the crop in the following year (Henahan, 1993). This caused over a million people to die of starvation. The people who did not die from starvation were faced with making a choice. They could remain in the country which they loved, or immigrate to America. Over a million people chose to immigrate to America during this time for survival. They were unsure of how they would be accepted, but knew that this was their one hope for survival.
The Irish immigrants faced prejudice, segregation and racism when they first came to America. The main city that Irish immigrant chose to dwell in was Boston, Massachusetts. Bostonians did not take kindly to the Irish immigrants. They segregated the Irish from society. The Irish were faced with assimilating to a country where the dominant ethnic group was Anglo-Saxons. The majority of the Irish immigrants were Catholic. They were use to being persecuted in their own country by the English for their religious beliefs. So Irish catholic immigrates were not only viewed as a subordinate group, but also considered to be the religious minority. To fully assimilate to this new country they would have to accept the religious beliefs of the majority, who were Puritans (Gavin, 2000).
The prejudice and institutional discrimination which the Irish immigrant’s received from their new country was clearly seen. Many employers would not hire Irish immigrants. The hatred for the Irish stemmed from the beliefs that the American citizens had. They viewed the Irish as desperate to find...