Introduction In this essay I will be looking at Irish citizeship, it’s application of jus soli, and the Irish diaspora.
The Concept of Ethnic Nepotism Ethnic neoptism appears similar to racisim but is analytically different. It is the idea of favouring those of your own nationality over other nationalities, looking after “our own” over “them”.
Ethnic nepotism as a basis for citizenship Ethnic nepotism is the basis for most modern state’s citizenship laws.
The Irish citizenship regime In Ireland, there are three ways to gain Irish citizenship; through birth, through marriage, and through residence. The principle of birthright, or jus soli, has been an issue with Ireland and foreign nationals gaining Irish citizenship. Jus soli became
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The word diaspora comes from the Greek diaspeirein, which means “disperse”. Diaspora is traditionally used to describe the Jewish people who were forced out of Jeruselum, but has come to refer to any group of people forced to leave their homeland. In 1991, in the journal Diaspora, William Safran set out a list of characteristics that describe what a diaspora is. First, they must be dispersed from an original “center” to foreign region. They must retain collective memory, vision, or myth about their homeland. They believe they are not fully accepted by host society and feel alienated. They see their ancestral homeland as their true, ideal home, and believe that they will or should eventually return. They are committed to the maintenance or restoration of their homeland. Finally, they continue to relate, personally or vicariously, to that homeland. Looking at Saffran’s criteria, it is questionable whether the Irish diaspora is one at all, as most Irish migrants left due to economic reasons, rather than actually being forced out of their home. As Safran says, “not all “dispersed” minority populations can legitimately be considered diasporas.” (Safran, 1991)
However, according to Robin Cohen, who expanded on Safran’s definition in his book Global Diasporas, those who migrated from Ireland due to the Famine can be classified as a victim diaspora. Yet as these migrants used the same routes used by Irish migrant before them, and migrants that came after, it is very difficult to differentiate Those desended from Famine migrants, and those desended from pre-/post-Famine
The term “diaspora” refers to an individual’s exit from his or her own home. In the story “The Money”, by Junot Diaz, the author describes how his mother sends money back to her parents in the Dominican Republic, where Junot’s lived before their immigration to the United States. His mother sends the money out of guilt for leaving her parents and home country behind, and because Junot’s grandparents need the money in order to survive. Though I lived in the United States for my whole life, my departure from my small suburban town in Ohio and my journey towards established myself in the Bronx, New York City could be considered my own diaspora.
John, 188). It could be interpreted that these immigrants just want to keep to themselves in their own environment that they feel safe in with their fellow immigrants. But it is this safe space for them that inhibits them from truly integrating into the culture of their new
Although for older generations it was difficult to assimilate, It was simpler for the offspring’s of the migrants. Thus, it can argued that an individual’s sense of belonging is dependents on their physical or external environment which can limit or enhance their sense of connection. Peter Skrzynecki uses a variety of language features and contextual background to provide an analysis
The Scotch-Irish people were one of the numerous immigrants who looked for shelter and alleviation in America. The Scotch-Irish appeared in the mid-seventeenth century when the English government, on edge to dominate Ireland, removed Lowland Scots as pilgrims to the province of Ulster in northern Ireland. For around a century the Scotch-Irish squeezed out a living in Ireland, yet in the early piece of the eighteenth century their monetary condition endured a progression of grievous inversions. As a result, a flood of maybe five thousand Scotch-Irish moved to America in 1717. Before the end of the eighteenth century, four more influxes of Scotch-Irish withdrew Ireland for America and a few hundred thousand Ulstermen settled in about each area of the English provinces.
When Catholic emancipation failed, the dam broke. Revolution became the only option for the repressed in Ireland to achieve the equality that they now believed was an inalienable right. The decades of enlightenment ideas that had been flooding in from America and France finally came to a head in 1798 when the Irish attempted their own rebellion. However, it was not just American and French ideas that lead Ireland to war, the history is much more conjoined that that. Without the historical event of the American Revolution, Ireland would never have developed the national pride that was needed to attempt a
The Irish immigration is a story of a long and difficult process, that had eventually become one of the ethnicities that had been prominent in Canada’s population. Although this journey began in 1825, the focus of this paper will be from the years 1840 to 1869. In this era of history Ireland faced a serious problem. From 1847 to 1852, Ireland had, what is now called, the “Great Potato Famine”.
Why the Scotch-Irish left Ulster The Scotch-Irish trace their ancestry to a few hundred thousand Scottish Lowland Presbyterians who were coerced to move to Ulster, a region in northern Ireland, by the British government in the 1600s. Hoping to augment its control of Ireland, England tried to increase the number of Protestant citizens in Ulster. Resentment from “natives”, however, maintained the group’s distinct cultural identity.
Migration from the native country imparts an indelible scar in the psyche of the migrants. They not only migrate from their place of birth but also from their language, culture, tradition, food habits and the list is endless. Immigration gives them the trauma as they would take a voyage from the world of familiar to the unfamiliar. In addition to that the immigrants are compelled to understand and adapt to the culture of the new land, their life style, food habits, climatic factors and the political milieu. They immigrate hoping for a better world but it becomes a mirage in the newly settled land.
Irish Immigrants in America Before the outbreak of the dread Irish Potato Famine, the people of Ireland had been a relatively small demographic in America. The immigration of Irish males had increased in the 1820 's, due to an abundance of jobs created by the building of the Erie Canal and other canal, road, or railroad projects, but when the famine struck, entire families flocked in droves to the United States. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," they heard our country call, and they came by the thousands, hoping to find, if nothing else, a decent existence. Between the years 1820 and 1930, an estimated 4.5 million Irish came to America.
In Ireland, the Irish were treated the same way blacks were treated in America, and they at one point “decided to sign a petition to treat colored people equal” (Takaki 142). But, in American unity did not exist because Irish and blacks had to compete for the same jobs and they had to gain social status in a society that disregarded them. The contentions between these two groups created hatred and division. But, the skin color of Irish Immigrants resembles that of most Americans. This eventually gives the Irish immigrants opportunities and voice in America, why Africans- Americans were constantly rejected.
Furthermore, an immigrant enclave can also be viewed as some sort of clan or group that is strongly trying to preserve their
So when they return to their homelands, they have hard time getting along with the native people, cultures and traditions. Often, these ‘non-residents’ marry someone from other countries, and both the spouses experience troubles getting acquainted with their partners’ cultures and ways of living. Things get even more difficult for the non-residents’ children. Many of them are born and brought up in the foreign culture. These children actually live in two different environments - one at home that resemble the original cultures of their home country or their root, and one outside their homes (the culture and traditions of the country they are living in).
Ethnocentrism is one of the leading causes of divisions amongst members of different ethnicities, races and religious groups in society. The word “Ethnocentrism” originates from the Greek word “ethnos” meaning “nation” or “people” and the English word “centre”. The term was coined by William Graham Sumner, a social evolutionist and professor, who defined it as the viewpoint that “one’s own group is the centre of everything”, against which all other groups are judged [1]. Although ethnic distinctions and divisions are only to provide a unique identity, it has led to racism and prejudice among people.
At the heart of a person‘s life lies the struggle to define his self, to make sense of who he is? Diaspora represents the settling as well as unsettling process. While redesigning the geopolitical boundaries, cultural patterns, it has also reshaped the identities of the immigrants with new challenges confronting the immigrant in negotiating his identity. Diaspora becomes a site where past is given a new meaning and is preserved out of intense nostalgia and longing. The novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid is significant in its treatment of the issues faced by immigrants in the diaspora.
Emigration, the act of such persons leaving their country and heading to a country of foreigners for different reasons. Immigration has never been an easy choice, but recently factors have made it easier. Immigrants, in my point of view, can be divided into two kinds, the first are people leaving their countries looking for a source of money and escaping the struggle of poverty, and the other kind are people looking for a peaceful life with no bombs damaging their hometowns every day, escaping wars and political persecutions looking for the freedom they have always been missing. I see that the immigration crisis nowadays is in its worst, as we can see, according to the UNHCR (The UN Refugee Agency), there are 65.6 million displaced people worldwide,