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Irish Immigration Skyrockets
In the 1840s, Irish immigration skyrocketed to over 2 million Irish coming into the country in that decade alone. Known as “Irish Dispora”, many immigrants came to the United States in search for better wages, better living conditions, freedoms they weren’t allowed to have under British rule, and many other reasons. But when these people reached America, they soon found out that they faced a harsh new country. -
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Potato Famine
The potato was the main food source of the Irish. The potato famine took the lives of 1.5 million people. This event led to one of the largest Irish immigrations to the United States, totaling around 1.7 million people. -
Irish Immigration Subsides.
After 1855, the number of Irish coming in the United States subsides. Between 1855 and the end of the Civil War, about 1.5 million people entered the United States. Many of these people settled between Boston and Philadelphia, with smaller groups settling in the South. -
A Plateau in Irish Immigration
After the 1860s, Irish immigration plateaued. Another 2.6 million people came into the country. This level of immigration of the Irish was overshadowed by the increase of immigrants from other countries, especially eastern Europe. Irish who did in fact still immigrate settled in “Irish hotspots”, which tended to be around areas that the Catholic Church had been built and cultural traditions had been kept. -
Second and Third Generations Making the Transition
The late 1800s saw the end of the harsh initial transition of Irish into American society. Both second and third generations began making steps in society by receiving educations and replacing first generation immigrants in the workplace. But even though these people considered themselves Americans, they still held onto their Irish heritage and the plight their forerunners has to face in order for them to have a better life. -
Decrease in Irish immigration
Because of the law passes by the US restricting the amount of immigrants, Irish immigration declined. -
Emergency Immigration Act of 1921
This act was put into effect as a result of the 800,000 recorded immigrants in the past 12 months to the United States. The law stated that the amount of immigrants per country was limited to 3% of its population, and the maximum immigrants the United States would accept was 350,000. This "stop-gap" law was emmitted for the intention to slow the flood of immigrants to the United States. source: http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1368.html
