Immigration
Immigrants who crossed the Atlantic Ocean did not have an easy journey. Many came by boat with nothing but the clothes on their backs, possibly a trunk, and some money stashed away. Some did not know English and most had little or no formal education. During the 1700s and 1800s, immigrants from overseas traveled in horrific conditions.
Nothing is more extraordinary than the decision to immigrate to America – the accumulation of emotions and thoughts which leads a family or individual to say farewell to their community, to abandon old ties and familiar landmarks, and to sail across dark seas to a strange land. These immigrants coming to America faced an uncertain future. They may have come to America to find new opportunities or to avoid problems in their homeland.
While some carried with them trunks holding their belongings, others desperately clutched potato sacks with the few remnants of their lives they could manage. There were probably as many reasons for coming to America as there were people who came. America holds the promise of political and cultural freedom and material abundance. The magnet for professionals as well as the less skilled is the chance to earn higher wages and maintain a better standard of living than was possible at home.
There were many push and pull factors that motivated people to leave their homelands. Religious persecution, political oppression and economic hardship are some “push” factors. For many who left their homelands, the United States offered the corresponding “pulls” of religious freedom, freedom of thought and speech, and economic opportunities.
Economic hardship has been a powerful “push” factor for many groups. The Irish potato famine of 1845-47 is a good example. The famine led to the emigration of approximately 500,000 Irish to the United States, accounting for more than half of all immigrants to this nation during the 1840s.
Following the end of World War I, the tradition of unlimited immigration was abandoned, and through the National Origins Act of 1924, a quota system was established as the basis of a carefully restricted immigration policy. Under the McCarran Act of 1952, one-sixth of 1% of the number of inhabitants from each European nation residing in the continental United States as of 1920 could be admitted annually. In practice, this system favored nations of northern and western Europe, including the United Kingdom, Germany, and Ireland. The quota system was reformed in 1965 and established an annual ceiling of 170,000 for Eastern Hemisphere immigrants and 120,000 for entrants from the Western Hemisphere. In 1978, these limits were replaced by a worldwide limit of 290,000, which was lowered to 270,000 in 1981. A major 1990 overhaul set a total annual ceiling of 700,000 (675,000 beginning in fiscal 1995), of which 480,000 could be family sponsored and 140,000 sponsored by employers.
Over the course of 150 years, people from Ireland, Canada, Italy, Germany, Poland and Puerto Rico came to live and work in holyoke. and each time, The community redefined itself based on its new inhabitants.
The hardships of the potato famine in Ireland forced many to find work elsewhere. In the 1840s, the Irish were the largest group of immigrants to settle in Holyoke. By the 1850s, the number of Irish in America had grown to almost one million.
