Connecticut's immigration history
Connecticut's immigration history is marked by its significant waves of immigrants, reflecting broader national trends and local economic opportunities. Initially settled by English and Scottish immigrants, the state saw a notable influx of Germans in the early 19th century, who contributed to various trades and established cultural organizations. By the mid-1800s, Irish immigrants became the largest group, primarily working in labor-intensive roles such as railroad and factory jobs. The late 19th and early 20th centuries introduced diverse populations from Southern and Eastern Europe, including Italians, Poles, and French Canadians, who played crucial roles in the labor force and local economies.
Post-1930s, Connecticut's immigrant demographics shifted with significant increases in Latino populations, particularly Puerto Ricans and Mexicans, and a smaller, yet educated Asian population from countries like India and China. Contemporary immigration issues in Connecticut involve both legal and undocumented residents, prompting varied responses from local communities. As of recent data, immigrants constitute about 15.7% of the state's population, actively contributing to sectors such as construction, hospitality, and manufacturing. This rich tapestry of immigrant experiences continues to shape Connecticut’s cultural landscape and economic framework.
Connecticut's immigration history
SIGNIFICANCE: A New England state originally settled by British Protestants, Connecticut’s long immigrant history has been colored by its nearness to one of the primary ports of entry for immigrants, whom it has offered a variety of occupational opportunities. Its immigrant history exemplifies the benefits and problems of a diversified urban society.
Connecticut’s earliest immigrants were primarily English and Scottish. However, the early nineteenth century introduced substantial numbers of Germans, many of whom were skilled workers in fields such as furniture manufacturing. Germans established their own social, musical, and athletic organizations in their new abodes. Many German immigrants were Jews who contributed significantly to the state’s business development, particularly in the state capital, Hartford, which became a notable center of Zionism in the nation. However, the Irish formed the state’s largest immigrant group until the 1850s. They came as weavers, spinners, and unskilled railroad and canal workers. During the second half of the nineteenth century, many became police officers, firefighters, omnibus drivers, and railroad conductors.
Around 1850, a growth spurt began in Connecticut’s population, partly because of the state’s proximity to New York, where most European immigrants entered the United States (US). In 1850, Connecticut’s immigrant population of more than 38,000 constituted about 10 percent of all state residents, but by 1870, that proportion had risen to nearly 25 percent. Increases in immigrant numbers were particularly noticeable in Hartford and New Haven. More than half of the 113,000 immigrants living in Connecticut in 1870 were Irish.
Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century
Immigrants contributed heavily to the growth of Connecticut’s labor unions. They also contributed to the frequency of labor strikes, prompting state labor laws during the 1880s; however, these laws were seldom enforced rigidly. An economic downturn during the Panic of 1893 and a growing awareness of the potential political influence of Irish Americans contributed to a short-lived but fierce movement to deny political office to Roman Catholics, chiefly because of their supposed allegiance to the pope. There was also a movement to exclude Roman Catholic teachers from public schools. However, the American Protective Association behind these movements failed, partly because Catholic voters were already too influential to be suppressed. Meanwhile, new immigrants from southern and Eastern Europe began to appear. These included Russians, among whom Jews were even more predominant than the earlier German immigrants.
The early decades of the twentieth century saw considerable gains in the Italian, Polish, and French Canadian immigrants in Connecticut. The earliest Italian newcomers were chiefly unskilled laborers, but they developed into skilled factory workers, market gardeners, and members of the building trades. They also found work as barbers, cobblers, tailors, and musicians. Many Italians settled in Hartford, New Haven, and Waterbury. The incoming Poles were mainly farmers and tended to remain farmers longer than immigrants from most other nations. However, many Poles worked in textile factories. With one of the highest proportions of Polish immigrants among American states, Connecticut had the most Poles of any New England state. Connecticut’s French Canadians, less numerous than in other New England states, worked mainly in textile factories. Many lived in the most crowded sections of Hartford.
The 1930s and Later
During the 1930s, the Federal Writers’ Project produced a valuable ethnic survey of Connecticut. Many of the people interviewed in this survey explained how kinship and friendship networks had affected their lives. Immediately after arriving in Connecticut, 84 percent of new immigrants lodged with relatives or friends from Europe. Some European immigrants considered domestic jobs in wealthy families to offer the best employment opportunities, but young immigrants preferred factory work. About 40 percent of the women tended lodgers and boarders in rooming houses, washed clothes, did piece work, or assisted husbands in family stores—enterprises that also often employed families’ children.
Home-based work had declined by the late 1930s, and more women went into factories or stores or performed personal services until about 65 percent of the women worked outside their homes. Older children working away from home were expected to turn over most of their earnings to their parents. The earnings of girls were often spent on their brothers’ educations. Parents did not expect their children to become financially independent, but the children often did. Young women, in particular, discovered new possibilities by being in the workforce, and some became active in labor unions.
Modern Developments
By the end of the twentieth century, Connecticut’s Latino population had increased sharply. The vast majority of the state’s Latino newcomers were Puerto Ricans, who were already American citizens when they arrived. Mexican immigration also became important. The heavy population of Latinos concentrated in Hartford, where slightly more than half the public schools’ students lived in homes in which English was not the primary language, created a critical educational problem. Poverty was another issue. A report issued in 2005 found that 15 percent of the state’s immigrant population—compared to 9 percent of the general population—fell into the category of families earning less than twenty thousand dollars a year. Immigrants from Asia, primarily India and China, were not as numerous as Latinos but were generally better educated and more prepared to perform at a high level.
Mirroring a larger national issue in the twenty-first century, illegal immigration become an important political issue in Connecticut. Individual communities responded to the problem in sharply contrasting ways: either toward providing sanctuary status for undocumented aliens or toward the vigorous application of the law. New Haven has undertaken a program to identify and assist documented and undocumented immigrants. This program has been popular in the city center but unpopular in its suburbs. Danbury, which has many undocumented alien residents, has had city detectives work with federal immigration officials to find and remove them. In 2015, the American Immigration Council noted that approximately 15 percent of the state's population was foreign-born, half of whom were naturalized citizens. The Hispanic population grew from 6.5 percent in 1990 to 14.7 percent in 2013, while the Asian population grew from 1.5 percent to 4.1 percent during the same time frame.
According to data collected in the American Community Survey and analyzed by the American Immigration Council, Connecticut had 569,300 immigrant residents in 2022, or 15.7 percent of its population. Connecticut's top countries of origin for foreign-born residents included Jamaica, India, the Dominican Republic, China, and Brazil. The number of immigrants contributing to Connecticut’s workforce included 383,600, or 19.5 percent of the state’s total labor force. Foreign-born residents tend to work in general services, such as construction, transportation, warehousing, hospitality, and manufacturing. Of the immigrants living in Connecticut, 312,700 had become naturalized US citizens, and there were 112,000 undocumented immigrants.
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