Similarities Between Irish And Jewish Immigration

As a sociological process, racial formation determines the position of a race in a society and is vital in American history. Different groups of immigrants moved to this place to seek their fortune. They wanted to be recognized to be the mainstream or “whites”, a symbol of fitting in American society well with high status and great influence. Irish and Jewish immigrants moved to the US in the 19th century, both started from low class but had different experiences afterward.
Irish moved to the US hoping to escape from English tyranny and famine. They could only take the dangerous jobs other groups would not do in the beginning but found themselves later stereotyped as “savages” and “undisciplined” like African Americans due to their consistent
They were called the “Greenhorns,” a symbol of inferiority and exodus, by people in the country when they arrived due to their different tradition and language. They could only live in their own communities and the working place that accepted them was the garment industry operated by Jews who came earlier due to the detest of other groups. Jewish girls took the arduous jobs in the dusty garment factories to support their families and their brothers at school; they became the people who united the whole community to resist their status as aliens through protesting after the Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire for labor rights. These actions ignited the passion for assimilating into the country to became mainstream. Besides learning English and changing customs, some of Jews even changed their name. Later, Jews worked to be businessmen and workers with better economic status but they faced barriers getting further as professionals to gain higher status. Children of Jewish immigrants earned their position in prestigious universities like Harvard but these didn’t change the perception of Jews as the low-class aliens with completely different culture and religion as school officers claimed “They do not mix. They destroy the unity of the college” (Takaki 286); these words epitomized hostility of the Jewish further assimilating or entering into the country. Jewish faced career barriers when they tried to
Even though Irish and Jews took the same kind of harsh job in the beginning, were both saw as low-class and they voiced out through strikes while offered the younger generation good education but the larger population, including both men and women, involved in jobs and the strategy of taking all kinds of jobs and excluding other groups to enter gave Irish the chance to control the job market and being more influential in the society in the first place; the similar culture gave them chance to be accepted into the professional world and high level politics as the mainstream. But for Jewish, even they had a greater passion for being recognized to be American but the fundamental difference in culture and religion made mainstream vigilant about accepting them. Stereotypes of the Jews as an unassimilable group preventing them entering professional worlds strictly controlled by Christians. The low population also made Jews unable to control any part of the society, including job market and politics like Irish