Transatlantic Connections and the Sharp Edge of the Great Depression

Abstract

IRISH transatlantic migration has inspired a number of impressive works in a variety of fields, from humanities to social sciences. Yet vast majority of these accounts end early in twentieth century, often immediately after World War I. Although some works mention sharp drop in traffic in late 1920S and early 1930s, most simply attribute this trend to changes in American immigration policy. According to Kerby Miller, one of foremost scholars of Irish transatlantic migration, Easter rising and Anglo-Irish war occurred just before well of Irish-American memories, duty, and guilt ran dry, as if seventy-year-old transatlantic diasporic links abruptly unraveled in years immediately following World War I. (1) Patrick J. Blessing, another major contributor to field, also sees 1920 as point at which the story of Irish in America had become story of Americans of Irish descent. (2) The reliance on immigration restriction legislation as a monocausal explanation of drop in Irish migration to United States stems from an underestimation of multifaceted and persistent nature of this transatlantic connection. Rooted in decades of postfamine movement, transatlantic migration network continued to involve not only those Irish-born crossing Atlantic themselves but also Irish at home and Americans of Irish descent in United States. The wide array of transatlantic links built up in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries functioned as far more than mere conduits of immigration. The network served as a two-way connection, with Irish-born labor moving predominantly westward while information and remittance money flowed in opposite direction. These connections remained central to lives of Irish men and women both at home and abroad and continued to function after Immigration Restriction Acts of 1920S. Even after stock market crash of 1929, thousands of Irish men and women continued to arrive in United States. Nonetheless, interwar period brought a momentous change in Irish migration history. The various and diverse bonds between Ireland and United States emerged relatively unscathed from restrictionist legislation of 1920S, only to unravel from ensuing social tensions of assimilation and economic strains of Great Depression. In sharp contrast to temporary ebbs and flows of late-nineteenth century, depression permanently disrupted westward flow of postfamine migrants. By time American economy began to recover, outflow from Ireland had been diverted eastward, setting pattern for almost a half-century. TRANSATLANTIC NETWORKS AND IMMIGRATION RESTRICTION Postfamine transatlantic migration was dominated by one-way westward movement in seventy years after mid-nineteenth-century famine, with departure of an estimated 3.7 million Irish-born men and women to United States between 1851 and 1921. (3) Despite improvements in Irish conditions in seventy years after famine, return rate for Irish transatlantic migrants was second lowest for all immigrant groups in United States between 1908 and 1923. (4) The westward flow of Irish men and women across Atlantic created a reciprocal eastward traffic in correspondence and remittances. Letters from Irish in America carried usually reliable information about current economic conditions back to Ireland, providing potential migrants with latest news and advice about employment prospects in United States. This responsiveness of transatlantic links became especially important during times of economic distress in United States, reacting with stop-and-go fluctuations in volume and even in direction during instabilities in early 1860s, middle 1870s, and late 1890s. (5) The counterflow of remittances and information from United States to Ireland played a vital role in lives of Irish at home and abroad. …