Chapter 6: Pioneers of the Century of Immigration

Since this is the chapter I will be reporting on for class, I simply took notes:

Patterns and sources of immigration changed with time and situations. From 1820-1924, about 36,000,000 people migrated to the United States. I wonder if this includes all ethnicities or just those from Europe.

Irish:

• mostly came to US because of potato famine
• Prefamine Migration (until 1844) - Mainly male catholics migrated to large US cities and used in public works since they were largely unskilled labor
• The Famine Years (1860-1930) - Ireland's agriculture decreased incredibly since farming the potato was very unstable and in result, epidemic broke out. The immigrants that came were unskilled labor, competing with blacks for laboring and serving jobs.
• The Irish Immigration (1860-1930) - New immigrants settled in neighborhoods where there were already Irish settlers. Most immigrants were now single females. Now Irish had an array of jobs in public service, laundry, and so on.

Germans:

• No major religion (Protestant, Catholic, Jewish)
• Spread settlements across United States, but in family groups
• Lived within German neighborhoods
• Took skilled jobs (beer industry, bakers, tailors, etc)
• Didn't assimilate well with language; still relied on German until WWI

Scandinavians:

• People from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark
• Settled in rural areas in Midwest
• Swedes: Farming immigrants from middle class family groups that came because of economic factors and overpopulation in Sweden. Often associated with Republican party in support of Prohibition(banishment of alcohol).
• Norwegians: Farming immigrants that settled in rural areas because of lack of agriculture space in Norway. Some settled in Brooklyn. Also Republican.
• Danes: Most information is from police records and smallest group of immigrant Scandinavians. Police records contained: year/month of departure, sex, traveling alone or in a group, occupation, age, last place of residence, and destination. Since the largest group of Danes were Mormons in Salt Lake City, they migrated in family groups, however many who came were unmarried men and women and would marry outside of their ethnicity. Women benefitted from the lack of women in the work force when looking for jobs. Most came for economic reasons and settled in the Midwest.