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Immigration Portfolio
Storyboard Text
- Push Factor: The Potato Famine
- I know son, I am too. We just don't have enough food because of the Potato Famine.
- I'm so hungry Daddy.
- Pull Factor: Job Opportunities
- We are going at a good pace today. Perhaps we will be done making this section of the railroad in a few months!
- American Attitude Toward Irish Immigrants
- During the Potato Famine, a disease wiped out Ireland's potato crop. Because the British landowners continued to ship out the Irish wheat and oat crops, there was not enough food left for the people in Ireland. Many died of starvation and/or disease.
- Businesses such as the Union Pacific were in need of thousands of workers because of the Labor shortage caused by the Civil War. Irish immigrants made up a large amount of those hired. Those who did not have the money to buy land to farm, got hired by railroad companies, or other country jobs, could settle in northern cities. Low-paying factory jobs were abundant there.
- Some Americans treated Irish (and many other) immigrants very badly. They were persecuted for their poor living conditions, their willingness to work for low wages, and for their religion. A large amount of Americans at the time were Protestants, meanwhile many of the Irish immigrants were Catholic. These two groups had had centuries of tension, which often led to violence. For example, in 1831 Protestants burned down St. Mary's Catholic Church in New York City.
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