Alright, let me be frank here. I am of Irish descent. My mother told me that when her father came to this country, around the turn of the last century, there was a great deal of discrimination against Irish immigrants. Even as a girl in the 1930s, she had a taste of it. But she admitted that much of what was said about the Irish immigrants was true. My grandfather said the same thing: the Irish really were dirty, inclined to breed lots of babies, inclined to violence and crime. They really were dirty (of course, it’s not easy bathing when you live in a slum and have no running water). They didn’t have the American work ethic and some of them joined Irish gangs. Just as with modern Hispanic immigrants, some chose to escape the ghetto by joining the cops, the fire department, or the military, while others became professional criminals. There was a lot of murder among or by Irishmen back then.
Perhaps the same might be said of Italian immigrants, though I won’t venture to speak for the Italians and do not have first-hand experience of them.
Here’s the difference between those immigrants and modern Hispanic immigrants: our ancestors in the last century were in a small minority so they had to assimilate. And they spoke English. Today, Hispanics are immigrating in such numbers that they have no need to assimilate at all. Even thirty years ago their numbers were such that they, and the social problems they represent, were controllable. That is no longer the case.
And of course, immigrants of previous generations did not demand to take part in social entitlement programs. They didn’t demand free health care, which is becoming costlier each year. Nor did they demand to take over the United States. The Irish and Italians of the last century not only assimilated, but became the most American of Americans, and with the possible exception of the Kennedys, America has the right to be proud of those descended from Ireland. But with the Hispanic tide, things are getting worse, not better.
LOL. Are you kidding? Ever heard of "organized crime?"
Worthwhile post, BTW.
Two more differences between earlier generations of immigrants and modern Hispanic immigrants are that the latter are coming mostly from a country that
a) is contiguous with the U.S.
and
b) has a historical claim to our territory