Why did so many people emigrate from Ireland to Britain and the USA between 1850 and 1914 - Essay Example

? Irish Emigration Between 1850 And 1914 Why did so many people emigrate from Ireland to Britain and the USA between 1850 and 1914? Throughout the course of history people have witnessed large scale movements of populations from Ireland to other countries. There are a lot of factors which resulted in this mass scale emigration. However, all such factors shall be discussed later on in the essay as we progress with it. All such emigrants moved along to various regions of the world, with America and Britain being most prominent ones as people believed that going to such counties would enable them to lead a superior lifestyle. Research has shown that somewhere around sixty five million to seventy five million people around the globe come from an Irish decent. These figures themselves speak of the mass scale emigration that took place in the country during the eighteenth and the nineteenth century. What is rather ironic is the fact that America has been home to the largest Irish community abroad. It has been observed from statistics alone that around thirty six million Americans have an Irish background or they claim to have their ancestry from Ireland. What is more shocking however is the fact that this figure of thirty six million people is more than nine times the population of Ireland itself. Research into facts has shown that one of the main reasons which resulted in such mass scale emigration was the Great Irish Famine. This Famine began in 1846 and went on for a period of six years to 1852 (IRELAND, 1997). Just between 1815 to the Great Famine period, somewhere between eight hundred thousand to a million people left Ireland for settling in North America. It shall also be noted here that the eighteen hundred thousand emigrants who left Ireland between 1845 and 1855, the period that coincided with the pre and post Great Famine period, came from a much economically lower status as compared to those who had moved to the United States of America prior to that period. This reason behind this mass scale movement isn’t much difficult to point out as the harsh conditions brought by the drought were enough motivation in itself for the Irish people to leave the country in search of a better future (DEIGNAN, 2003). This emigration however, was not only limited to the pre and post famine period. This emigration went on till around middle of the nineteenth century as the domestic economy of Ireland failed to perform well after the great and deadly Famine. Other reasons which can be deemed to have contributed to this movement include the shift in methods of farming to tillage based from pasture. Also, the Irish law was designed in a very peculiar manner as it permitted inheriting of the parents’ farms not by all of their sons, but only the eldest. This law was of extremely non-impartial nature and after the famine there already weren’t many opportunities left for the younger sons of a family (BIELENBERG, 2000). Therefore a lot of people also left the country to go somewhere where laws were equal and where their future could have been safe and secure. Major emigration of the Irish people owing to the Great Famine witnessed a rather shocking drop in Ireland’s population. Statistics have shown that the country’s population went on to stand at just forty four hundred thousand in 1911 in comparison to sixty five hundred thousand in 1851 and roughly around ninety hundred in the 1840’s. Other than the Great Famine, there were also various other reason which contributed to the large scale emigration that took place in the country. One of the main reasons was that the demand for agricultural workers had fallen dramatically owing to the rough conditions of the agricultural land post famine. It shall also be mentioned that the wage rates in the United States of America were much higher in comparison to Ireland and that also caused a strong desire in the Irish people to move there and make a healthy livelihood for their families. Another factor which contributed to the emigration, though rather shocking, was the fact that owing to the low socio economic status of Ireland, people there wanted to delay getting married, and in some cases even avoid it altogether. It also must not be overlooked here that many people also decided to move out of Ireland as a lot of their relatives and family members had already left the country to get settled abroad, and moving abroad to settle with them was the only option to be in touch with them (MORAG, 2008). Some Irish people are also believed to have left the country owing to differing political views, but then again it needs to be noticed that there weren’t many people involved in this type of migration. The bulk of the people, who left their country, did so with a desire to escape poverty and look for better opportunities abroad. Another factor which tempted the Irish emigrants to consider America and Britain was that they often noticed high remittances being sent back by their friends who had moved to these two countries. It also should not be overlooked that everyone has a thirst to do better and get ahead in life and to make their tomorrow better than their yesterday, and that convinced many Irish people to move to countries with better opportunities. The Irish land law was mentioned earlier on but not discussed at great lengths. It was, among other factors, one of the key reasons which forced people to leave Ireland and look for better opportunities abroad and to look for a country where law was equal for everyone. Ireland’s land reforms, which were designed after the Great Famine, were designed in such an unjust manner that they only passed on the family farms to the eldest sons (CIMENT, 2001). This meant that all other sons and daughters in the family had no other option but to serve as labors and that too in their own family farms. Irish people would generally get their daughters married to a person who had enough property to himself. However, this law meant that families now found it extremely hard to find a young man with land, and thereby their daughters were forced to stay in their paternal homes without getting married at all. This also contributed as a key reason for emigration as families moved abroad, especially to Britain and America, to find decent lads for their daughters. Another factor which induced the Irishmen to travel abroad was the emergence of the steamship. The steamship travel that initiated in the 1860’s resulted in a great fall in inter-country travelling costs and therefore served as motivation for the Irishmen to move abroad (SOCIETY FOR IRISH LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES, 2003). It needs to be noticed that at the time of the Great Famine, and also post that period, the bulk of the people who migrated from Ireland came from its rural areas as opposed to the urban cities. All these people had rather poor backgrounds. The province of Connaught and the province of Munster were most affected as these mainly consisted of rural areas and most of these provinces were severely affected by the Great Famine. It needs to be noticed that of the Irishmen who decided to leave the country for America, most settled in cities rather then moving to agricultural lands. Of the cities that received the highest influx of Irish emigrants, the top three were Boston, New York and Philadelphia. (WALES FAMINE FORUM, 1996). The people who emigrated out of Ireland were mostly young in age, lacked any technical skills or knowledge and were usually single. Studies have shown that the Irish Presbyterian community set up farms in America in the early nineteenth century. Males and females travelled to the United States in a roughly equal ratio. However, history has it that most Irish women that came during the time of emigration worked as domestic servants. The behavior of the local American people to the Irish emigrants however, varied with time. For instance, the Irish Presbyterians who entered America in the early nineteenth century experienced a little hostility from their American counterparts. This was mainly due to the fact that they were small in numbers and moreover, they were Protestant Christians and shared the same religion. However, when mass immigration ensued, the British and Americans viewed this as a threat to their way of living, and mass scale discrimination started taking place. These emigrants who came in from Irish villages were often very unskilled, uneducated and furthermore came from Catholic backgrounds. They were not welcomed. These people also had severe communication issues as many of them used their native language, Gaelic, which was not understood by the Americans (BARTOLETTI, 2001). Even after all this, the Irishmen have no doubt made it big over a period of time. One of the main factors which helped them to easily settle in America was the fact that they were white in color, which automatically gave them a higher status than the black slaves who were freed. As discussed earlier on, Britain and the United States of America were the two main places where Irish emigrants decided to settle in. A number of factors need to be considered to know why these two places were the preferred choice for the emigrants. These countries had well settled economies and offered a good life style to whoever decided to work hard. Also, various shipping companies that operated in olden times used to tell people that these two countries have a prosperous life and that pretty much contributed to the exodus of emigration into these countries. There was however one particular factor which induced a lot of people to move into Britain. And that factor was the close proximity of Britain to Ireland. People wouldn’t have been willing to travel much had the distance been a major issue, the costs being high. However, this wasn’t the case with Britain at all. Also, emigrants often selected Britain as their choice since it was nearby, and deep inside they believed that being nearby to their home country they could go back there anytime if the economic conditions took a positive turn. The question of permanent settlement cannot be ruled out here, however for most of the emigrants the reality was harsh as they never were able to make it way back home (WALTER, 2008). Once Irishmen had decided to make Britain their next destination, there were just a couple of factors that they had to consider. These factors included the distance to Ireland, ease of finding work and possible existence of sea route to that British city. If we look at the statistics, then Liverpool has the greatest number of Irish population at 22.2 percent of the total city’s population. It was followed by Dundee, Glasgow and Cardiff having Irish populations of 18.9%, 18.2% and 16.2% respectively. Research has also shown that a significant portion of Irishmen who settled in Britain after the Great Famine didn’t stay there for a long amount of time. They eventually moved over to other counties, with the United States and Australia topping the list. To conclude this discussion, we can say that the main reason why Irish people were forced to leave their country was the fact that it lacked proper economic facilities. Also, the laws of the country were unjust and created disharmony amongst the member of the same family owing to the unjust inheritance rules. It also needs to be noticed here that the bulk of the people who moved out of the country selected either Britain or America as their preferred choice. While most of these people were initially welcomed owing to coming from the same religion, Protestantism, later on they were given a strong shoulder as the emigrants came in from a different set of beliefs, Catholics. BibliographyTop of Form Top of Form Top of Form BARTOLETTI, S. C. (2001). Black potatoes: the story of the great Irish famine, 1845-1850. Boston, Houghton Mifflin. BIELENBERG, A. (2000). The Irish diaspora. Harlow, England, Longman. CIMENT, J. (2001). Encyclopedia of American immigration. Armonk, N.Y., M.E. Sharpe. DEIGNAN, T. (2003). Irish Americans. Hauppauge, NY, Barron's Educational Series, Inc. IRELAND. (1997). Population and migration estimates. Dublin, Central Statistics Office. MORAG, N. (2008). The emerald isle: Ireland and the clash of Irish and Ulster-British nationalisms. National Identities. 10, 263-280. SOCIETY FOR IRISH LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES. (2003). Irish migration studies in Latin America. Burtigny, Switzerland, Society for Irish Latin American Studies. http://www.irlandeses.org/imsla.htm. Translocations: the Irish migration, race and social transformation review. (2006). Translocations. http://www.translocations.ie/index.html. WALES FAMINE FORUM. (1996). The green dragon: a magazine of the Irish in Wales. Cardiff (116 Brunswick Street, Canton, Cardiff, CF5 1LN), Wales Famine Forum. WALTER, B. (2008). From ‘flood’ to ‘trickle’: Irish migration to Britain 1987-2006. Irish Geography. 41, 181-194.Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of FormBottom of Form Bottom of Form Read More