Title: 
Headings:  Immigration from Europe: The Irish and Germans
Immigration
 
from
 
Europe:
 
The
 
Irish
 
and
 
Germans

Timeline

Facts
 
and
 
Figures

The
 
Potato
 
Famine


Content: Immigration from Europe: The Irish and Germans
EXPANSION
 
AND
 
REFORM
 
(1801–1861)
Immigration
 
from
 
Europe: The
 
Irish
 
and
 
Germans
BETWEEN
1820
AND
1860
almost
 
2
 
million
 
people
 
from
Ireland
 
and
 
about
 
1.5
 
million
 
people
 
from
 
the
German-speaking
 
states
 
of
 
Europe
 
immigrated
 
to
 
the
United
 
States. Irish
 
and
 
German
 
immigrants
 
began
coming
 
to
 
America
 
in
 
colonial
 
times,
 
but
 
the
 
early
Irish
 
were
 
mostly
 
Protestants
 
from
 
the
 
north
 
of
Ireland
 
who
 
settled
 
on
 
the
 
frontier,
 
while
 
the
Germans
 
were
 
mainly
 
religious
 
refugees
 
who
 
clus-
tered
 
in
 
Pennsylvania. In
 
contrast,
 
almost
 
all
 
the
 
new
Irish
 
immigrants
 
and
 
about
 
half
 
the
 
Germans
 
were
Roman
 
Catholics; many
 
were
 
unskilled
 
laborers,
 
and
even
 
many
 
of
 
the
 
Irish
 
spoke
 
an
 
unfamiliar
 
language. Differences
 
in
 
religion,
 
language,
 
and
 
culture
 
set
 
the
newcomers
 
apart
 
in
 
a
 
country
 
that
 
was
 
still
 
mostly
British
 
in
 
ancestry
 
and
 
Protestant
 
in
 
religion. Some
Americans
 
bemoaned
 
the
 
new
 
“foreign”
 
influence
 
on
their
 
“native
 
culture,”
 
while
 
others
 
feared
 
they
 
would
lose
 
their
 
jobs
 
to
 
immigrants
 
willing
 
to
 
work
 
for
 
low
wages. The
 
Irish,
 
especially,
 
faced
 
bitter
 
prejudice: “No
 
Irish
 
Need
 
Apply”
 
was
 
commonly
 
added
 
to
help-wanted
 
signs.