Name: Thoby Dwi Pramudito

NIM: B016048

How the Irish becomes part of ‘White’ Americans: A Survey

1. Introduction

One of criticism of Donald Trump is that Donald Trump is discriminating towards migrants. His
decision to build a border wall with Mexico, cracking down unauthorized immigration, and
banning travel from 7 Muslim-majority countries, in addition to his various statements regarding
various immigrant community, had drawn ire from many parties. His supporters too, has often
being accused of being xenophobic. This brand of resistance towards immigration is called
nativism - the political movement which advocates the interest of the natives of a country against
those of immigrants, mainly spread by supporting immigration restriction measures
(Dictionary.com; 2017, Castro, 2004). A definition of populism as a political movement involves
“a virtuous & homogenous people” who are pitted against ‘a set of elite people & homogenous
others’ (Vedi, 2018). The United States is considered ‘a country of immigrants’, yet it doesn’t
escape the global backlash towards migration felt throughout the Western world today. So many
of the US’ cultural manifestation is built by migrants - for example, hot dogs & apple pie comes
from its German immigrants (Borter, 2017; Crockett, 2015).

This resistance towards immigration were often considered to be racists - indeed, oftentimes it
really is. The border wall from Mexico is designed to restrict immigration from Latin & Southern
American countries, and if these people think of illegal immigrants, most of them will think of
immigrants from Latin & Southern American countries. Likewise, the ban of travel from 7
Muslim-majority countries are often a xenophobic response towards Muslim / Middle Eastern
immigrants. According to Vedi, the resistance towards this foreign ethnicities are based on the
perception that these foreign ‘other’ will deprive the former, the ‘virtuous’ ordinary people, of
their identity, culture, values - or even worse, replaced & attacked.
Throughout US history, it seems like there’s always a connection between waves of immigration,
and white nativism towards foreign immigrants with different ethnicities - even before the areas
in which today comprised Eastern United States, the original Thirteen Colonies, united under a
single banner. Not only the English colonists harbor resistance towards the Native Americans,
they also harbor resistance towards the other ethnicities - Irish, Dutch, German, French and
Spanish. Benjamin Franklin were noted to harbor resistance towards the German immigrants
coming in to Pennsylvania. His Observation Concerning the Increase of Mankind express
concerns that Pennsylvania, a country (at that time) founded by the English, will be so
overwhelmed by German immigrants that they will never adopt Pennsylvania’s customs and
values, and Germanize the existing Anglo population.

However, what is considered ‘white’ today is different from what is considered ‘white’ in these
previous times. Today’s ‘white’ Americans are comprised of people with German, English, Irish,
Italian, and so on - indeed, as long as they look European, they will be considered white. 150
years ago, however, they weren’t considered white. This paper will explore how these ethnicities
becomes ‘white’, primarily, the Irish.

2. Body

During the Irish Potato famine of the 19th century, a fourth of Ireland’s population moved abroad.
80% of them went to the United States ().

Even before the United States becomes independent from Britain, there was a wave of Irish
immigrants coming in. However, the Irish Potato Famine brought it to a whole new level. Entire
neighborhood, and work space, were quickly filled with Irish migrants. Boston’s population rose
up in unprecedented level - 25 - 27% of Boston population were recent Irish migrants in 1855.
Most of these migrants ended up in areas which becomes today’s Northeastern United States,
although they also ended up somewhere else in the United States. They took low-level jobs that
many native-born Americans wouldn’t do - servant, laborers, and so on. They ended up in
squalor, living together with the black populations at the time (this is the root of the reason of
why many black Americans today has Irish surnames) (). The interaction isn’t always friendly,
but they, together with the black Americans, created a low culture in the US urban society at the
time ().
Resistance towards Irish migration were many. There was an anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant
cartoon, the Know Nothings, dedicated towards resistance towards the migrants, but since the
migrants coming in were mainly Irish, its hatred is dedicated towards mainly the Irish identity.
For the Protestants in America, where It gained power in Congress, and from there, the Know
Nothings established the American Party, and able to pass laws such as requiring 21 years of
residence before naturalization process. Anti-Irish cartoons were rampant (). There was a genuine
fear that the Irish, which they were staunch Catholics, with their religion, will replace the
American’s Protestant culture. For the Protestants, where their churches exists in their
neighborhood, the notion of massive amount of people which follow a church so far away, in
Rome, will replace the Protestant culture and turn the American republican laws & government
into Rome’s puppet.

From the historical perspective of US immigration laws, it is the first drastic change in US
immigration laws, from the previous category of immigration which only requires the immigrant
to be white, and live in the US for 2 years.

From the criteria of the US immigration laws which categorizes desirable immigrants from the
non-desirable ones, Ireland didn’t sent their best to the United States. For example, an entire
battalion of Irish immigrants deserts to Mexico, and today they’re known as St. Patrick’s
battalion (). A group of Irish-American veterans of the American Civil War once attacks Canada
to starts an US-Britain war () - so that the US will be busy engaging against Britain and the Irish
can focus on Irish independence from Britain.

How the Irish population eventually becomes accepted in the vernacular American identity is
still debated. The increasing surge of Chinese immigrants on late 19th century, as well as
Mediterranean immigrants of the early 20th century - new waves of immigrants - probably
redirects the hatred from the Irish immigrants. The Civil War, WW1 & WW2 did improve the
reputation of the Irish immigrants - the sheer amount of these immigrants who participated in the
war, as well as the military which enforces people from different backgrounds to work together
(during the time where the Army is segregated, as long as they’re white), did change the
prejudice of the returning veterans. Meanwhile, these Irish immigrants often continued to live in
the US, and eventually becomes more integrated. They participated in the American democratic
system, and the existence of Irish-friendly politicians improve their reputation. Class mobility
exists - and more becomes the cops rather than the low criminal. Eventually, their skin tone
difference becomes trivial compared to the more recent Chinese & Mediterranean new
immigrants of the early 20th century.

However, for some reason, while eventually the Irish, and the Mediterranean immigrants, can be
considered as ‘white’, the people with more visible skin differences were not. Interestingly, the
Irish descendants of migration before the Irish Great Famine weren’t treated the same way as the
Irish migrants escaping the Famine. It is reported that the earlier Irish immigrants, those who
came before US independence - were generally more wealthy compared to the Irish immigrants
of the Great Famine - thus, these poor migrants are classified as uncivilized and ‘dirty’.
However, class doesn’t explain this prejudice entirely - wealthy black entrepreneurs existed,
wealthy black celebrities, actors, and many more, exists - yet they still faced prejudice, at least
implicitly, even today. Judging based on how early these people arrived in the US first isn’t valid
either, if one considers that black people had arrived in the US since the first settlements were
built. Indeed, there are no more other explanation, other than racial bias.

Today’s Irish illegal immigrants - indeed, any white illegal immigrants, weren’t treated as hostile
as the Latin American & Southern American immigrants, even though both of these groups were
Catholic. No border wall against Canada were proposed even today. The underlying assumption
is that the Canadians - generally thought of as a ‘white’ country by default (the default identity in
Canada is that it is a ‘white’ country) - will not come across the US in a large scale, and generally
has similar values as the US. However, if one investigates, Latin American and South American
countries can also be considered as Western civilization - they were colonized by the Spanish and
speaks a Western language - Spanish or Portuguese. Is it because these countries are
underdeveloped, and these migrants aren’t classified as ‘civilized’? The rhetoric often thrown at
Latin American & Southern American immigrants is that they’re bringing drugs & crime. Or is it
because they aren’t ‘white’ enough? Will these people eventually, through intermarrying, will be
considered ‘white’? Or else?
3. Conclusion

Despite prejudices faced 150 years ago, today the Irish are truly considered as part of white
Americans. However, Latin & Southern American immigrants of today, despite them were really
had quite the same background as the Irish immigrants 150 years ago, were not. The prejudice
that faced the Irish 150 years ago, still manifested implicitly towards black Americans today.
Class and how early the migrants arrived can’t explain this prejudice - only ethnicity-based &
race-based prejudice can.
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