Irish exam. The Experience of Irish Immigration to the United States

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The Experience of Irish Immigration to the United States
Part 1
The United States is one of the most diverse nations in the world. It boasts of the most significant number of races living in unity in one nation. Immigrants from other countries have considered the United States a safe haven and a country of opportunities and where each individual has the freedom to do what they please to improve their lives. The first immigrants to settle in America landed there 20,000 years ago and became the American natives and ancestors before the Europeans began crossing the Atlantic into America. Among the European countries that have had rich histories of immigrating to the United States, the Irish Stand out as one of the countries whose citizens have struggled to relocate to the United States due to different reasons. It is, therefore, imperative to assess the diverse experience of the Irish immigrants to the United States for immigrants from two different generations; The 19th century and the 21st century.
In the 1970s, the United States Congress passed a new policy explaining people who would be granted citizenship (Kostakopoulou, Theodora, Dora, 23). In the same year, the United States adopted the naturalization act that allowed any individual as long as they were law-abiding and well-mannered individuals of whites who had resided in the United States for more than two years to become citizens. However, non-white residents in the United States got denied residency and, consequently, the fundamental constitutional rights, including property, voting and the ability to testify in court. The legal changes changed the nature of immigration for most Europeans but left out other nationalities, especially the African-Americans who were found to be one in every five Americans according to the 1790 census, this was a beneficial development for the Irish Immigrants to start settling in the United States.
Numbers of immigrants from western Europe tripled After the re-establishment of relations between Britain and the United States when the war of 1812 ended. After the changed relationship between the United States and Europe, the Irish were the first immigrants to take advantage of the changed and move to the United States in large numbers. Statistics indicate that one-third of the total number of immigrants consisted of the Irish between 1820 and 1860 (Daniels, Roger 18). Most of the Irish immigrants during that era were Catholics fleeing the harsh political and religious conditions in Ireland. Most American Immigrants arrived with diseases emanating from the long Arctic voyage, overwhelming significant ports, including Boston, New York and Philadelphia.
Most of the 19th century Irish immigrants to the United States were refugees who were forced to exile due to the political and humanitarian disaster in Ireland. Most of the refugee immigrants were sick and miserable. Americans viewed as a significant threat to their jobs and as people who threatened to strain their welfare budgets. Similarly, American citizens felt threatened by the incoming visitors since they still pledged their allegiance to a foreign leader and practiced a different religion. Most of the immigrants who were considered undesirable individuals were of Irish origin (History.com). Famine was also a significant cause of immigration of the Irish to the United States. Ireland solely depended on tubers for food and as a major cash crop, and when the potato blight struck, most Irish citizens were forced to flee to other parts of the world. The conflict between the Catholics and protestants had already begun before the potato blight. Since the Catholics were fewer than the protestants, Catholics had to flee to the United States.
Compared to the 19th-century Irish immigrants to the United States, modern 21st-century immigrants leave their native land for different reasons, including education and employment (Daniels, Roger, 18). Since the stabilization of the Irish economy, the number of immigrants has reduced not only because of America's immigration policies but also because of the economic changes in Ireland. Since the United States began experiencing immigration difficulties, they have adopted strict immigration policies that limit the number of immigrants entering the United States and issuance of citizenship to immigrants who have stayed in the United States for long. Compared to the 19th-century Irish immigrants who suffered religious persecution and discrimination in the United States, the modern immigrant major challenge is unemployment and assimilation.
Part 2
Ellis Island: The first immigration station in the United States was known as Ellis Island. It was situated in the New York harbour. Between 1892 and 1954, it is estimated that roughly 12 million immigrants moved into the United States through Ellis Island (History.com 7). Records also show that the first Irish citizen to get processed at the Ellis Island immigration station was a teenager know as Annie Moore from County Cork in the Ireland republic. The term Ellis island is first encountered from the U.S Immigration timeline article that provides de...