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Adaptation
and Assimilation
The Irish
immigrants left a rural lifestyle in a nation lacking modern
industry. Many immigrants found themselves unprepared for the
industrialized, urban centers in the United States. Though these
immigrants were not the poorest people in Ireland (the poorest
were unable to raise the required sum for steerage passage on
a ship to America), by American standards, they were destitute.
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often had no money beyond the fare for their passage, and, thus,
settled in the ports of their debarkation. In time, the sum total
of Irish-Americans exceeded the entire population of Ireland.
New York City boasted more Irishmen than Dublin, Ireland! |
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Irish
immigrants often crowded into subdivided homes that were intended
for single families, living in tiny, cramped spaces. Cellars,
attics and make-do spaces in alleys became home. Not only were
many immigrants unable to afford better housing, but the mud
huts in which many had lived in Ireland had lowered their expectations.
A
lack of adequate sewage and running water in these places made
cleanliness next to impossible. Disease of all kinds (including
cholera, typhus, tuberculosis, and mental illness) resulted
from these miserable living conditions. Thus, when the Irish
families moved into neighborhoods, other families often moved
out fearing the real or imagined dangers of disease, fire hazards,
unsanitary conditions and the social problems of violence, alcoholism
and crime.
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