Push factors / Pull factors / Economic / Social and Cultural / Successes / Failures
Irish / Early c19th:Poverty, oppressive English landlords
Mid c19th: Famine – potato blight, then government failure to help.
Only industry in Belfast (employed Protestants only ) / Industrialisation in mainland Britain - need for labour: canals; railways; factories / Hardest, dirtiest jobs – made economic growth and wealth of Britain possible – massive contribution to construction
Contribution to professions and trades in smaller towns / Drinking, fighting culture
Rise of hostility and violence, but also sped up move to equal rights for all religions / Revitalised Catholic Church in England
Individuals
Established Irish communities and pubs / Life in inner cities – extreme poverty
Anti-Irish prejudice, including racism
Anti-Irish riots including Manchester Road, Bradford 1848
Italians / Conflict and resulting poverty during period of Italian unification.
Also outbreaks of disease / Stability of Britain in later c19th, including religious and political freedom (1829 Catholic Emancipation Act) / Laying asphalt on roads (job not liked by British).
New trades not developed in Britain (ceramics, plasterwork)
Food industry, esp. ice cream / British love of ice cream
Italian schools, churches and hospitals established / High level of intermarriage (Italian men and British women)
Italian communities grew and prospered (‘Little Italy’ in Clerkenwell in London, small community on Otley Road in Bradford) / Italian gang masters exploited boys as organ grinders
Complaints about noise from barrel organs
Anti-Catholic prejudice
Blamed for cholera outbreaks (dirty ice cream glasses)
Germans / Warfare – military force used to create a unified German state in mid c19th.
Hatred of Prussian rule under Bismarck from 1871 / A German king in 1750
1800s – flourishing economy and lack of government interference / German engineers and businessmen established successful companies, eg. Johann Ellermann’s shipping company in Hull; Paul Reuter’s international news agency (Reuters) using new communications technology
Wide range of jobs – bankers, bakers, brewers, butchers / Did not form communities in towns
Brought and popularised the sausage and as a result, the ‘English breakfast’ / Entrepreneurs set up some of the most successful British companies
Mostly Protestant and prosperous – rarely encountered prejudice
German textile merchants established ‘Little Germany’ in Bradford – unusual architectural style / None in c19th, but WW1 had a very bad impact on Germans living in Britain
Jews (pre 1881) / General prejudice in Europe / Increasing tolerance in Britain. Laws in the 1830s allowed Jews to trade, go to university, join army and be lawyers, and in 1858 become MPs / Successful businesses and particularly bankers (Rothschilds)
Jacob Behrens in Bradford (set up Chamber of Commerce) / Synagogues set up, including in Bradford / Many successful Germans in Bradford were Jewish (eg.Jacob Behrens)
Increasingly settled, prosperous and integrated
First Jewish Lord Mayor of London 1855; first Jewish MP 1858; Jewish mayor in Bradford – Charles Semon, 1865 / No specific challenges - would have faced some prejudice (anti-semitism)
Russian and E. European Jews / Over 200 pogroms 1881-4 against poor Yiddish (traditional Jews) communities in Russia and E. Europe. Refugees rejected across Europe – journey on foot very challenging / Religious and political freedom in Britain with civil rights for Jews. Settled Jewish community already in Britain / Employment in sweat shops in London (Whitechapel) making cheap clothes – sold all over the country enabling working class British to buy new clothing for the first time.
Mark & Spencers, Burtons and Moss Bros all set up by East European Jewish migrants. / Lived in closed communities with little integration.
Enabled working class British to shop for and buy new clothing for the first time / Some Jews already in Britain set up soup kitchens to help
Some individuals set up very successful retail businesses (M&S) / Crammed into over-crowded accommodation.Faced a lot of prejudice, including from Jewish communities already settled in Britain.
1889 – commonly blamed for ‘Jack the Ripper’ murders
Industrial and Imperial Britain1750-1900
European Migrants - Purple for Progress