Hungarian Immigrants To America

Hungarians in America America has always been the choice of land where most of the migrating families will settle into. Immigrants left everything they had and knew behind to come to this new land of opportunity. Whether the reasons were economical, religious or oppression from their respective government, they wanted to be part of the great new world that was being developed west of the pond. A new world where all immigrants were welcome with open arms, where freedom was the common goal and everyone wanted to succeed. Leaving their home lands was just one of the many hardships that immigrants had to deal with. European immigrants had to also deal with the assimilation process to the melting pot that America was becoming. For some European
cultures it was easier to assimilate to the melting pot that upcoming America was becoming, but that wasn’t true for the Hungarian immigrants. When most of the Hungarian immigrants arrived in the new world, they had a difficult phase assimilating to the American society. Hungarians came to America in different waves through a period of one hundred years as mention in The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History by Van Tassel David “Hungarian immigration to Cleveland occurred in 3 distinct waves: turn-of-the-century immigration (1850-1924), the largest and most influential wave; post-World War II "displaced persons"; and post-1956 refugee immigration”.
The first large wave of Hungarian immigrants to America occurred in 1849-1850 when the group known as the "Forty-Niners" fled from retribution by Austrian authorities after the fall of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. The Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups by Thernstrom, Stephan, talks about how this first wave was mostly formed of well educated men which a large number of them ended up joining the Union armies during the Civil War. The second wave was mostly uneducated and poor Hungarian immigrants looking for a better life in the new world. As mention in The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History by Van Tassel, David D. “They came because land was scarce in their homeland and cheap labor was plentiful”. The Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America by Vecoli, Rudolph J. states “These immigrants came almost solely for economical reasons, and they represented the lowest and poorest segment of the population”. The third large wave happened during the 1956 refugee migration as stated by Van
Tassel. Most of the Hungarian immigrants came through the so called Ellis Island to settle in the major cities. “The late eighteenth and early nineteenth century also saw the arrival of the first sporadic settlers, most of whom came from the middle and upper classes, were motivated by personal reasons to immigrate, and usually settled in such coastal cities as Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, and New Orleans” (Vecoli). One city that Hungarians mostly settle in was Cleveland, Ohio. By 1920 there were 43,134 Hungarians in Cleveland. Van Tassel articulates:
Hungarians came to Cleveland because of job availability, accessibility, and, as more Hungarians settled here, the proximity of countrymen. … Hungarians initially found work at EBERHARD MFG. CO., Mechanical Rubber Works, Natl. Malleable Steel Castings, Ohio Foundry, Standard Foundry, Van Dorn Iron Works, Glidden Varnish, Cleveland Bronze, and Carlin Bronze. They earned a reputation as hard-working and tolerant, and according to some sources, employers sought them out when hiring. (Van Tassel) As Hungarian immigrants settled into these major areas of America, they faced the hardships of assimilating into them. Moving into these parts of America was already making it hard to assimilate into the American way of life. Whether it was the first, second or third wave of Hungarians that arrived to these areas, one of the reasons they had a difficult time assimilating was that they faced the hardships of finding employment. The first waves of Hungarians were as stated by Vecoli “Several thousand strong, the numbers included only educated men, many of them from the gentry class (middle nobility), who found it difficult to adjust to America 's frontier society” (Vecoli). The numbers from this first wave also included farmers as stated by the Ways of Interpretation of Hungarian-American Ethnic-based Public Life and Identity by Papp, Z. Attila “Displaced Hungarian farmers that immigrated believing that there would be farmable land in the United States… but found that, as in Austria Hungary, farming was being industrialized and these immigrants were disappointed” (Papp). On top of not being able to find employment, the lower class Hungarian immigrants were frown upon “Assimilation was slightly more difficult for Hungarians; as American society did not initially accept the rural immigrants who arrived during the first big wave” (Thermstrom). Finding employment was just one of the hardships Hungarians had to deal with when migrating to America. Another reason why it was so hard for Hungarians to assimilate into the melting pot that America was; was the fact that they wanted to keep their culture alive at all cost “These immigrants fostered their Hungarian identity and a sense of community because of their social, cultural, and psychological needs and also because of Anglo-American society 's unwillingness to accept them” (Vecoli). This led to the “more established immigrant groups treated these newcomers with disdain, ridiculing their dress and Old World ways” (Thernstrom). But not only did their first generation have it difficult assimilating, even their American born children were “still viewed as outsiders by the Anglo-American majority” (Vecoli). Most Hungarians made the drastic decision of “Maintaining ethnic identity at all cost, with sometimes negative consequences for the career” (Papp). Hungarians like many other ethnic kept their culture very much alive “Hungarian immigrants to the U.S. never really cut their ties to their homelands, and their activities in the New World can be considered a continuation of their old way of life… These immigrants treasured their Hungarian identity. Because of their continued preservation of their Hungarian identity, their assimilation was not easy” (Papp). Hungarians struggle to keep their culture and identity alive was what led to them starting their own social and religious organizations. The final reason why it was so difficult for Hungarians to assimilate into the American society was the way they segregated themselves through organizations like church just for Hungarians.
Many of the Hungarians that came during the first wave already had the mindset of going back to their homelands with enough money to start a business. Such way of thinking embedded in their brains led them to not want to congregate with other ethnicities “The majorities were single men or men who had left their families behind, because they initially intended to return home with enough savings to purchase land. They lived in boarding houses, run by the few women who had immigrated with their husbands” (Van Tassel). This segregation also included the frown upon Catholic religion that Hungarians practice as suppose to the Anglo-Saxon America Protestant religion. Hungarians started their own Catholic churches to worship at like the “largest Hungarian Catholic church and parish in the United States, St. Elizabeth of Cleveland (founded in 1892)” (Vecoli). Following their religion made it very difficult not just for the first immigrants but also for their American born children as well “A significant Hungarian community developed, with churches, fraternal societies, and other ethnic groups. However, the children of Hungarian immigrants assimilated quickly and rejected the worlds of their parents. Still, they were viewed as outsiders by American society” (Papp). Hungarians, who didn’t know
how to speak English, often didn’t want to learn and communicate with the rest of the non Hungarian community. Many opted for not speaking their own native tongue that way they won’t be discriminated against. In conclusion, as many immigrants from Europe came to the “new world” America, they faced the difficult situations assimilating. For Hungarian immigrants it has harder than for others European immigrants. Hungarians like many other immigrants who came to America wanted to better their lives economically, religiously or their way of government, but that came with an assimilation price to the American melting pot.

Works Cited
Thernstrom, Stephan. Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups. Cambridge, MA: Belknap of Harvard University, 1980. Print.
Papp, Z. Attila. Ways of Interpretation of Hungarian-American Ethnic-based Public Life and Identity. Budapest: Magyar Külügyi Intézet, 2008. Print.
Van, Tassel David D., and John J. Grabowski. The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1987. Print.
Vecoli, Rudolph J., Judy Galens, and Anna Sheets. Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America. New York [etc.: Gale Research, 1995. Print.