TAKAKI CHAPTER 6

EMIGRANTS FROM ERIN
In this chapter, Takaki writes about the “massive influx of a new group of immigrants” (139) that came to America following Indian removal and slavery expansion by English settlers. He states that “suddenly, blacks in the north were competing with Irish workers” (139). The coming of the Irish brought a lot of competition to the labor force and led to a lot of people of other races to lose employment. People of other races could clearly see at that time that the Irish were given better opportunities to employment because of their color. One of the employees complained that the “hunger and color [of the Iris] are thought to give them a title to special favor” (139). But people of other races also wondered why ‘whites’ were taking vocations of people of color. They stated that by taking on the vacations of colored people, whites had also assumed the ‘degradation’ of people of color.
Most Irish however, saw their coming to America as a necessity. They felt that they were being driven away from their homeland by the ‘English tyranny,’ the British yoke enslaving Ireland (140). They complained that they were being forced out of their country by foul British laws and oppression. At this point, the “English conquest led to the abolition of traditional Irish laws and obligations and confiscation of Irish lands (140). One of the changes the English settlers introduced was commercialization of agriculture which meant more export of agricultural produce. This led into the famine year of 1846. Takaki states that “half the people of Ireland could have been fed with the livestock exported in 1846” (144). With a view to get to a better land and escape all this misery, most Irish decided to migrate to the new world where they felt things would be much better.
In the new world, Irish people sought for labor and were assigned mainly to do the hazardous jobs, therefore, increasing the rate of accidents among them. “They had crossed the ocean in pursuit of riches, but they failed to find gold on the street corners” (148). Instead, they were meant to work harder than they used to in their own country.they were made to live and work in very poor conditions.
however, the Irish women had a strategy they called the Irish Ethnic Strategy.this was a strategy in which Irish women did not want their daughters to end up as servants. instead, they were encouraged to seek employment as secretaries, nurses and teachers, so much that by "1910, Irish- American women constituted one fifth of all public school teachers in northern cities and one third in Chicago alone" (161). this advancement of Irish women indicated a rise from the 'giddy multitude.' soon most Irish American were attending college. the Irish were thought of as a race that could easily assimilate the American culture unlike negroes and Chinese.
As i read this article, i asked myself how come Irish people could be easily accepted in the American culture than Chinese or Negroes. however, i noticed that the fact that the Irish are much more similar in color to whites than anyother race at that time played a role in how they were accepted and thought of to easily assimilate. their rise in socio economic status also played a role in their assimilation.