European immigration to the United States: 1790-1892

Significance: Between 1790 and 1892, more than sixteen million Europeans migrated to the United States. Because they constituted nearly one-third of the total population and 53 percent of the urban residents, European immigrants had an important role in the development of American intergroup relations.

In 1790, the initial United States census was conducted and Congress passed the first uniform naturalization law. For the next 102 years, more than 90 percent of the immigrants came from Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, and Scandinavia (old immigrants). In 1892, for the first time, more arrivals were from Eastern and Southern Europe (new immigrants) than from Northern Europe. That same year, Ellis Island replaced the Castle Garden as the major receiving center for immigrants landing in New York when the federal government took control of the process. From 1821 to 1892, approximately 4.5 million German Protestants, Catholics, and Jews; 3.5 million Irish Catholics; 2.7 million British Protestants; and 1 million Scandinavian Protestants emigrated, with more than two-thirds coming to the United States. The Irish gravitated toward unskilled labor in the Eastern cities; the English, Welsh, and Scots often found work as skilled laborers in this same region. Germans tended to find positions as skilled craftspeople or in the trades in both Eastern and Midwestern cities. Many Germans, Scandinavians, and Dutch became farmers in the Midwest.

Relations with the Dominant Culture

At the onset of large-scale immigration, the descendants of the early colonists, who were mostly Protestants of English and Scotch-Irish descent, dominated the United States in numbers and control over society. They resented and discriminated against the new arrivals for a variety of reasons. As a group, they were generally satisfied with their lives in the United States and had established an “American culture” separate from that of Europe. A new wave of Europeans could disrupt this. Consequently, many Americans became nativists, hoping to prevent what they viewed as an immigrant “takeover” of the nation. The hierarchical structure of Catholicism, which they considered at odds with the tenets of democracy, negatively affected the large Irish and German Catholic population. Jews were still blamed for the death of Christ, and many people overestimated their influence in the financial world. Although American Protestants increasingly embraced temperance and prohibition of alcoholic beverages, many Irish and German immigrants saw spirits as a part of their culture. Irish, Welsh, and English laborers often believed that organized labor was the key to better pay and working conditions; however, many native stock Americans felt that labor unions were in opposition to American individualism and free labor capitalism. Germans and Scandinavians, who desired to maintain Old World languages and traditions, were chastised for being un-American. All of these factors were responsible for divisions between colonial stock Americans and the immigrants.

Relations Among Old Immigrants

Despite commonalties of the ethnic experience, the old immigrants never viewed themselves as a unified group. Conflict between the groups was more apparent than cooperation. These differences often had European roots that combined with American circumstances.

Milestones of European Immigration to the United States, 1790-1892

Religious differences continued to separate people in the United States as they had in Europe. Almost all the British, Scandinavians, and Dutch were Protestants, as were half of the Germans. Like their American counterparts, the British Protestants were at odds with Irish Catholics. The religious differences in the German states were also brought to the United States. Germans viewed themselves as German Protestants, German Catholics, or German Jews rather than as a single culture.

Political issues also divided the old immigrants. Catholics and urban laborers, especially the Irish, gravitated toward the more open Democratic Party. Protestant skilled workers and midwestern farmers believed that the Whigs, and later the Republicans, reflected their interests of upward socioeconomic mobility and conservative social values. Catholics and the less conservative German Protestants objected to any laws restricting alcohol. Conversely, many English, Welsh, and German Pietist Protestant immigrants abstained from liquor and favored its prohibition. In regard to slavery, unskilled Irish laborers feared that emancipation could bring about competition with African Americans for low-paying jobs; English, Welsh, and German skilled workers and tradespeople believed that the extension of slavery would damage the free-labor, capitalist economy.

The Assimilation Process

The Americanization process for the older group of immigrants was hastened because all ethnic groups began to enjoy increased social and economic mobility by the latter part of the nineteenth century and because the arrival of the new immigrants lifted them to a higher level of social status.

The various ethnic groups achieved social and economic mobility differently. The English, Welsh, and Scots often moved from their skilled labor positions to become bosses, supervisors, and managers in corporate America. They used the school systems to educate their children, who moved into professional positions. Many descendants of the Welsh and English immigrants became teachers and administrators in elementary and secondary education systems, giving those groups a tremendous impact upon education in the United States.

Working from positions as unskilled laborers, the Irish moved through the corporate ranks. Politics was also a means of Irish mobility. Colonial stock Americans found local politics disdainful; however, the Irish recognized an opportunity to gain political power in the growing urban areas. By the late 1800s, many Eastern cities were under the control of political machines dominated by the Irish. Although colonial stock and other old immigrants criticized boss politics, the machines served the rapidly expanding urban-ethnic community at a time when official government agencies were lacking. The Irish were also able to gain mobility through their leadership in the Roman Catholic Church. The Church became a major force in American life with the arrival of numerous Catholic immigrants. The Irish Church hierarchy was instrumental in sponsoring a vast educational network that educated all Catholics from elementary school through the university.

Germans and Scandinavians were perhaps less inclined to use higher education as a means of mobility. However, as the United States rapidly expanded, the services of German tradespeople and farmers were all the more needed. This, in turn, brought about a growth in German businesses and farms, resulting in the upward mobility of ship owners and workers alike. German Jews, many of whom began as peddlers and small shopkeepers, were able to expand their businesses to meet the increasing consumer demand. This economic success combined with a strong emphasis upon education was responsible for a remarkable degree of socioeconomic mobility for German Jews.

The arrival of ten million Eastern and Southern Europeans resulted in a higher socioeconomic status for the old immigrants. The new arrivals provided a large labor pool to fill unskilled positions. The old immigrants could move into the more lucrative skilled and management jobs or expand their businesses to serve the growing population. Also, many of the values of the Northern European immigrants were more identifiable as American ideals. To both colonial stock and old immigrants, the new immigrants appeared to be considerably different. Consequently, the colonial stock found the old immigrants more acceptable.

By the mid-twentieth century, the descendants of the old immigrants were less commonly viewed as distinct ethnic groups. The British found their heritage largely assimilated into the larger American culture, and Germans’ ethnic identification diminished during the two world wars. Certain groups, such as the Welsh and Scandinavians, still maintain ethnic institutions. However, these institutions are intended more to preserve the vestiges of the cultures than to help immigrants deal with challenges in the United States. To most observers, the descendants of the old immigrants are firmly entrenched in mainstream American culture.

Bibliography

Berthoff, Rowland. British Immigrants in Industrial America, 1790–1950. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1953. Print.

Dolan, Jay. The Immigrant Church: New York’s Irish and German Catholics 1815–1965. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1975. Print.

Handlin, Oscar. The Uprooted: The Epic Story of the Great Migrations That Made the American People. Boston: Little, 1951. Print.

Hansen, Marcus Lee. The Immigrant in American History. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1940. Print.

Higham, John. Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860-1925. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1969. Print.

Thernstrom, Stephan. Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups. Cambridge: Belknap P of Harvard U, 1940. Print.