Reasons to Immigration to America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Reasons to Immigration to America - Essay Example Till date, one can find traces of both cultures in every nook and corner of the country. The case for this paper is that of America. As a country, America has been blessed with the great 'salad bowl' syndrome, wherein it enjoys a plethora of people who have come to the shores of this great country in search of opportunity. The basic reason for people migrating to a certain part of the world is the lure of opportunity as opposed to whatever threat might have met them in their home land. In this regard, the paper will discuss the work of Ronal Tataki, as he sets about describing the mindset of the Irish Americans who came to set up homes in America. Also, this paper will use the work of Jon Gjerde who has described the attitudes of the German Americans from the Strearn County. These works have been used in order to demonstrate the expectations of the people from various quarters like Scandinavia, Germany and Ireland, as they migrated to America. The quintessential 'land of opportunity' called America enjoyed the Irish as its oldest settlers when they came forth to call America their home during the traumatic 1840s. A simply set of people, they came under tremendous pressure due to the potato blights that started from the year 1840 only to gain momentum in 1847. The final blow was rendered to the Irish when the population began to dwindle and the remaining people began to succumb to various diseases like typhus and fever. (Hovi, 2001) The Irish, with their minimal skill sets and predominantly rural exposures owing to a similar background filled with farming and allied activities, settled mostly around areas New York, the Great Lakes, Mid West as well as San Francisco and New Orleans. (Hovi, 2001). These people took to growing urbanization that was found in most of the cities enumerated above, despite their rural experiences. Thus, they managed to attract some sort of culture, which in turn refined them and put them in a position to command more respect. This helped them develop into a business class with the growing opportunities that the civil war later presented. It was found that in the beginning, the Irish settled for jobs that involved high work load due to their inadequacy when it came to experience and training in arts that were fast becoming a part of the urban world. According to Tataki, in general these people came to America looking for prosperity and some amount of respect attached with the same which they more or less achieved by virtue of being one of the oldest settlers in the land. Scandinavians The Scandinavians are probably as old as their Irish counterparts when it comes to migration. Having come from further up north, these people had a tendency towards desiring the more simple things in life. The Scandinavians came in droves basically from Norway. According to records and other original documents, the years between 1825 and 1914 saw the highest number of immigrants coming in from any country in Europe, with 750,000 people migrating to America from Norway alone. (Hovi, 2001). The primary reasons for Scandinavians moving to America were economic in nature. As a country, Norway had suffered extreme economic crises in the 19th and 20th centuries. This propelled the people into a mood of despair and bitter feelings. With nowhere else to go, the only ray of hope came from America. This held true for Sweden and Finland as well, where the people