In the 1840's and 1850's, many Americans complained bitterly about immigration. They said these new people that flooded in from other places didn't want to work. If they actually did work, they took jobs from real Americans. They said immigrants had disgusting habits. Immigrants were violent and uneducated. They ate strange foods and talked funny. Immigrants had bizarre religious rites. Immigrants could never be integrated into the American Way of Life. That's what Americans said about the Irish. Today it's said about other people, and it's still wrong.