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Posted on 04/04/2006 5:34:55 PM PDT by neverdem
Today's rancorous debate over immigration has a parallel in the nativist reaction to the mass Irish immigration in the mid-19th century.
Spurred by the potato famine that began in 1845, 3.5 million mostly destitute Irish migrated to America by 1880 - about 7 percent of the population of 50 million. By contrast, today's 11 million unauthorized immigrants, of all nationalities, constitute just 4 percent of our population.
Contemporary immigration foes, like former Gov. Dick Lamm and Rep. Tom Tancredo, claim America can't absorb so many foreign-born without fatal damage to our economy and culture.
Yet, history shows we did just that. Today, there are 43 million Americans of Irish ancestry, a key element of the vibrant alloy that is America.
Today's nativists argue we can't compare today's illegal immigrants to the Irish, because the Irish came here legally. That's technically true, but the 19th century wave was just as uncontrolled, because America had virtually no bars to immigration in those days.
Kenneth Ackerman's book, "Boss Tweed: The Rise and Fall of the Corrupt Pol Who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York," details how the desperate Irish were welcomed at the docks by the political machine that provided the only social safety net in that era.
Tweed minions would help the newcomers find housing and work and, if there was an election in the offing, they would swiftly be naturalized as citizens in mass ceremonies by Tweed's judges, so they could vote for their benefactors.
Cartoonist Thomas Nast, who hated Irish and Catholics with equal fervor, pandered to the nativist bigotry by depicting Irishmen as drunken, subhuman brutes. The accompanying Nast cartoon depicts the role immigrants played in supporting Tweed by showing an Irish thug and a Catholic priest carving up the Democratic Party goose that laid the golden eggs.
But though the Irish were despised, they were still admitted through America's golden door. That's because Americans needed them to do our dirty work.
The first generations of Irish worked largely at unskilled and semiskilled occupations, but their children found themselves working at increasingly skilled trades. By 1900, when Irish Americans made up about 8 percent of the male labor force, they were almost a third of the plumbers, steamfitters and boilermakers. Their places at the bottom of the ladder were taken by newly arrived laborers from southern and eastern Europe.
Today, those dirty, low-paying, jobs are being taken by Latinos. But if history is any guide, the daughter of that Latina who scrubs your floor today may be the doctor who delivers my granddaughter's baby a generation hence.
To some, that is a frightening prospect. But I think Clio, the muse of history, would join with Lady Liberty herself to say:
Bienvenidos, Americanos nuevos.
Bob Ewegen is The Denver Post's deputy editorial page editor.
We're talking 40-50 years, during which time America's big cities saw the rise of Irish ghettos, Irish gangs, ethnic strife, expliosion of Irish social pathologies, and corrupt machine politics driven by Irish immigration (okay, it does mention the last one).
It took a long time for the Irish to assimilate and for these problems to go away. And that happened thanks in part to the period between 1920-1965 during which there was virtually no immigration.
Why should we go through that painful process again with another group that is even more backward the the Irish of the mid-19th century?
Why should we go through that same process again with a group that looks even less promising, in an era of political correctness that makes assimilation impossible?
"But it's not about immigration; it's about illegal activity. And I think most people know that, because they've been made so hyper-sensitive to race in this country that they get pissed when someone insinuates they are a racist over what is an issue of legality, not race."
Honestly, if they decided to start paying taxes and share the burden with me, I have no problem with them staying. My main problem with any illegal alien is blatent disrespect for our laws.
My grandfather came from Italy. Learned the language, worked saved his money and became a business owner. Nobody helped him, no federal loans, or organizations to provide him with housing, no free medical care. You could go on and on. And by the way he learned the language, my mom says Italian was never spoken to them, my grandfather said he was an American, he lived here where they speak ENGLISH, not in Italy.
Exactly, but I'd be happy enough if we could get them to promise to vote only once, and only after they've become citizens.
Mexicans doing that are really morons, but there has been some issues with pro-Ireland Irish in America. Like funding terrorist organizations that caused problems for our main ally the UK. And many following the Pope's lead in being against the Iraq war.
Again, this doesn't resolve the immigration isue today, but we shouldn't be too quick to say that today's immigrant groups are radically different than those who came before.
As to another post on "disproportionate" v. "wildly disproportionate." -- We can look up the figures, but I think it is something like 30% of FEDERAL prisoners are Hispanic (v. 10% of the population), but, of course, Immigration is a Federal crime, and federal prisoners are only about 10% of the national total. I think the % of all prisoners who are hispanic is about 20%, or double their proportion. It is probably hard to get ethnic figures from 100 years ago, but I'm quite confident that there were figures showing Irish (and Italian!) criminals at double their proportion in the population. If we want to do serious research, I imagine the hearings on the 1924 immigration bill, and earlier arguments over immigrant groups, would have claims. I think at one time it was claimed that over half the prostitutes in New York were Jewish.
Finally, an interesting statistic buried in the study of Black conditions in America, which has been publicized in the last few days. Unemployment rates for 20-30 years olds not in School. In the last 20 years, it is something like black rate has risen from 43 to 72%; Whites from 16 to 25% and hispanics stayed steady at about 19%. Not a figure compatible with all of "them" sitting around doing nothing.
That is true.
There is a galactic sized difference between ethnic parties and celebrations by LEGAL citizens with flags present, verus the "hate America, this is our land, teach me in Spanish, hang Mexican flags in schools, I have a right to break America's laws" demonstrations.
Find me a photo of an Irish flag hanging in the classroom in that "150 year history" of yours, or of an Irish flag flying over top an upside down Old Glory on taxpayer paid school grounds.
Your comparison is farcical.
The statement is fair, except the author forgot an very important issue;...the Irish managed to melt in the American way of been American with emphasis on their heritage.
The Illegals OTOH, especially from Mexico, are resilient of becoming "AMERICANS", hence creating a balkanized environment!
Never the less the Asian Community are doing the same helping balkanizing our society; at least the Asians do not fly their flags in our face and claim portions of US been their territories!
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I never know what may turnup 'inside' those gifs!
What horsecrap. When the Irish came to America, they came on slow ships on a one-time lifelong trip, to become full Americans.
They will not have to go up against our military; our politicians seem determined to give them the Southwest and more on a silver platter.
If you think the radical groups are a bunch of 20 year olds with rocks you need to do some research, especially about the gangs. I do agree our military would make short work of Mexico and the Marines would be at the Halls of Montezuma again in shore time; but only -IF- they are allowed to.
What can you expect from a lib paper in a "Sanctuary" city?
There WAS no welfare system for them to bilk. The closest thing they had was Tammany Hall and tranksgiving turkeys.
As a Dem/lib propagandist he couldn't help himself from wishing out loud.
What a load of horse$#!# article. The subtext is the implication that anyone opposed to criminal aliens and amnesty is a racist. That is simply not true. I hate criminal border-hoppers, not legal immigrants, who are among the most patriotic of Americans.
Posted by JeffHead Jeff links to Mexica.org's 'after protest' pic fest. You can see there what the marchers thought they were marching for.
A poster for Friday’s march. March 31. This poster lists the Latino orgs that are promoting the protests. They are all communist/socialist front orgs.
Here is my analysis of what is going on behind the scenes.
Here is some evidence that 'amnesty' increases illegal entries. These people knew before the demonstrations that the time was ripe.
Smith Act of 1940 This is the U.S. statute that ought to apply to the organized gathering of tens of thousands of foreign nationals calling for the overthrow of our country.
H.R. 4437 At this link you will find a good exegesis of the only bill that doesn't offer some type of amnesty/pathway to citizenship/excuses for illegal entry. It is harsh on employers but has reasonable protections for employers who verify documents that are later shown to be false. It explains that the databases necessary are already in place. It provides for border security.
Understand that the provision that the protesters say is 'racist,' that makes illegals felons, was inserted by the Dems a short time ago. That clarifies why Hillary happened to discover the immigration issue a week before the marches. Why she demonized Republicans as "making Jesus a criminal."
Keep in mind just who organized these protests. Who provided the tens of thousands of T-shirts, the thousands of professionally made signs, the hours and hours of promotion on Spanish language radio and TV stations. It has been noticed that Islamic orgs names and logos appear on some of these signs as well. Remember that NEA teachers and adminstrators are the ones who have assisted the march organizers by providing bussing for their students, hoisting Mexican flags at school and overlooking the truancy.
Don't forget that the last two Presidential elections were nearly 50/50. Think about how our Congress is looking for a way to appease these foreign nationals through legilation. No election necessary. The outcome of legalizing 11 million illegals and encouraging more to come will be a solid lock for the left forevermore in national elections.
Mexico is Rich- Mexican wealthy play American taxpayers for suckers
Good thread for any that missed it. It should really make you mad.
Every dollar spent in U.S. taxes for social services for illegal aliens frees up additional cash to be sent south as part of the annual remittances which provided $20 billion in 2005. According to the CNN news show Lou Dobbs Tonight (3/21/05), "Remittances, as they're called, are expected to become Mexico's primary source of income this year, surpassing the amount of money that Mexico makes on oil exports for the first time ever."
Shhhh......
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