Discuss the experience of immigrants to the United States in the mid-1800s. What motivated Irish and Chinese immigrants to come in particular, and what opportunities and challenges did the newcomers discover upon their arrival? How did the Irish maintain their cultural identity while attempting to blend into the established American population? In what ways did Chinese immigrants and their descendants struggle to achieve acceptance by the powers-that-be in the United States into the early 1900s?

In the second half of the 19th century, the American continent had become a place that attracted millions of people around the world. The image of the United States as a land that had many new opportunities was preferable to people’s previous places of living. First of all, the 1840-1850s were the decades of a great influx of Irish in the US. At that time, Ireland experienced the Potato Famine which brought a lot of suffering to the local population. Besides, there were new immigrants from China and Jewish origin. For example, the big influx of immigrants from China Takaki explains by the desire to search for gold in California with “Forty-Niners.” All in all, immigrants came to the US because of economic reasons to earn more and due to terrible living conditions in their native countries.

The major driver for the upcoming of immigrants to America was the Market Revolution. This shift was a reason for the American population to become more diversified. Irish and Chinese immigrants were the main nations that immigrated to America because of the Market Revolution. For example, Irish women manufactured fabric, while Irish men worked in New England shoe factories. Irish people were also allowed to enter elite schools and Harvard University in the early 1900s. These facts show that Irish immigrants were culturally similar to American residents of English origin which made their assimilation easier. However, Irish immigrants before the 1850s were designated as people inclined to violence and crime, whose intellectual qualities were considered low by white Americans. As for the Chinese population, they worked in manufacturing industries and on the railroad. Their culture was strikingly different, so the assimilation happened extremely hard. These immigrant groups were rhetorically and practically downgraded to the inferior position of African Americans.

Irish immigrants definitely wanted to assimilate into American society because of the features that distinguished them from others. This assimilation was easier for the Irish than for anyone else because they were native English speakers and had knowledge about the traditions of English residents of America. Nevertheless, initially, Irish immigrants were seen as inferior citizens, which can be compared with the inferiority of blacks. The strategy chosen by the Irish to confront discrimination was to settle mostly in cities. Tanaki indicates that in 1850 every third Irish immigrant lived in fifteen cities, particularly 134,000 in New York City, 72,000 in Philadelphia, and 35,000 in Boston. After Irish people extensively settled in the cities, they started to achieve their rights as citizens.

Irish people’s main cultural characteristic was that they wanted to promote their style of living despite their desire to assimilate. In fact, it was a two-sided process. While they tried to get all the benefits of American democracy, they promoted their “Green Power.” Green Power consisted of seeking privileges and opportunities for their nation through political machines. By having a significant influence on democratic urban structures, the Irish heavily taxed the American middle class and secured jobs in the public sector and municipally-owned utilities. Moreover, Irish immigrants promoted a discriminational attitude towards Blacks. It helped them preserve their “Whiteness” in the North and protect their positions in the workplace. This Irish antagonism exploded during the Civil War. They condemned abolitionism, arguing that it is “Niggerology” and opposed Abraham Lincoln’s struggle to make black slaves free. All in all, Irish settlers were principally different in their assimilation process from other immigrants. Unlike other migrants, they were white-skinned, but at the same time, they had to go a long way to get out of the marginal position of inferior migrants.

Chinese were viewed by the white American population as a nation that threatened white racial purity. Although Chinese immigrants were welcomed in California’s gold mines in the middle of the 19th century, the Americans radically changed their attitude towards them in the future, creating laws against the Chinese population. For example, President Rutherford B. Hayes warned Americans about the “Chinese problem” in 1879. In the early 1900s, after the San Francisco earthquake, Chinese immigrants, especially women, who were not allowed to immigrate with husbands, began coming to America. In San Francisco, they created special Chinatowns, where they created their own culture similar to the original Chinese culture. In fact, Chinese people achieved the appropriate scale of freedom from prejudice and bias only after the Second World War.