So Far So Close: Irish and Mexican Migrant Experience in the United States

José Antonio Gurpegui Palacios

doi:10.37668/oceanide.v13i.47

Abstract

Irish and Mexicans conform two singular migratory groups in the United States. Nowadays it is possible to find important differences between both groups that could lead to think that in both cases the migratory experience responded to different patterns. However, as we empirically analyze the historical, sociological, and political roots of the arrival and settlement of Irish and Mexicans in the United States, it is possible to verify that the two models are not so different. In both cases similar reasons and behaviors are reproduced in aspects related to why they migrated, to settlement patterns, the complex relations with the hegemonic group, or self-protection systems.

Highlights

Irish and Mexicans conform two singular migratory groups in the United States
This essay is not intended to study the issue of migration from a humanitarian point of view, but rather to analyze and compare, from empirical premises, Irish and Mexican emigration to the United States; a phenomenon that begins in both cases at the same time: 1845 in Ireland, as a consequence of the Great Famine caused by the pests that ended potato crops and devastated the country; and 1848 in Mexico after the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo whereby the United States incorporated an area of almost one million square kilometers into its territory
At first glance it may seem that the Irish and Mexican migratory reality and experience responded to different patterns and were developed according to different conditions; as we deepen the historical and sociological analysis, we observe that the similarities of one and the other are more numerous and significant than expected