US-American view on refugees

Pennsylvania had a large German population at the time of the revolution. Pennsylvania, under the old system, was basically a fief of the Penn family, which appointed the governor. They had a policy of religious toleration and a great many small German Protestant sects had settled there. From 1681, when King Charles II granted a charter to William Penn to settle a debt he owed to Admiral Sir William Penn, who had died by then, the colony became a haven for small sects, many of them more or less persecuted in their homelands. From the Wikipedia article on William Penn:

When I stayed in Chcago some years ago, it was a rented room, the house owned by an ethnic Norwegian lady - she told me that there's quite a numerous Norwegian population in that area (nearly 100,000 claim Norwegian ancestry).

They're so plausible . . . they slip right in and no one notices.

In USA there are as far as I have heard more with Norwegian ancestry than Norwegians in Norway.
Minnesota is full of Ole jokes - jokes about the stupid Norwegians told by Swedes. Or the opposite.
Some place I heard that a few decades ago 50% of USA citizens had a German forefather or mother.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act of the 1850's and the Homestead Act enticed many of Germans to the prairies. of Kansas. For some reason, they came predominately from Westphalia.
Due to the "Nativist/Know Nothing movement", they couldn't built churches there. Disregarding this, they 'asked' others in their native area to emigrate as well ...
So the bishop of Münster send one of his priests, a great .... -uncle, to establish Catholic parishes there. Which he did.
The first was St. Mark in Sedgwick County (nowadays Colwich, KA). (An interesting aside: parishioners donated $100 per family for stained glass windows which were ordered from Mainz, Germany - In a letter from 1892 [which I have], he asked family members for ideas where to get them not too expensive. [More interesting details in that letter.]
This pastor had founded three churches and later became the vicar general of the Wichita Diocese. Msgr. Bernard Schmiehausen was a pastor in the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, in the Diocese of Salina, and the Diocese of Wichita.

So-called "White Americans" represent just over 60% of the population of the United States, and that number decreases with every census. According to Wikipedia:

Apropos Norway: Seiland is the eighth largest island in mainland Norway, located in Finnmark county.



It hosts the most northern refugee camp in the world (mainly refugees from Syria)



(Map from goggle-map. Photo taken from this spiegel-online report. [More photos at link.]

I also found interesting the many friends of European ancestry had a mix of Native American blood.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Germany,_Manhattan

Nothing to be said about Tinkers?

I also read some time ago that many Germans moved inland to places like Wisconsin, because unlike the Italians who came with little or no money, Germans had money to travel inland.

Here's some interesting history about Germans in Wisconsin.
http://wna-trip.www1.50megs.com/heritage.html

It was more a question of your work than money.
People from Germany and Sweden usually were farmers and had to go where there were farmland. They either had to sell a farm, borrow money or being helped by relatives already in USA
The Danes left later and started to work in families where there was a certain ecenomical stability so the families could afford help.
There was little Italian emigration to the United States before 1870. However, Italy was now one of the most overcrowded countries in Europe and many began to consider the possibility of leaving Italy to escape low wages and high taxes. Most of these immigrants were from rural communities with very little education. From 1890 to 1900, 655,888 arrived in the United States, of whom two-thirds were men. A survey carried out that most planned to return once they had built up some capital.

Most Italians found unskilled work in America's cities. There were large colonies in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore and Detroit. From 1900 to 1910 over 2,100,00 arrived. Of these, around 40 per cent eventually returned to Italy.

Willing to work long hours on low wages, the Italians now began to rival the Irish for much of the unskilled work available in industrial areas. This sometimes led to hostilities breaking out between the two groups of workers. The Italians were also recruited into the garment industry and by the outbreak of the First World War had replaced the Jews as the main group in the sweated trades.

A large part of German immigration into the United States was also a result of the failed 1848 uprising. There are large German areas in Wisconsin, as has been noted, but also in southern Illinois and across the river in Missouri. Many of the "Forty-eighters" joined Mr. Lincoln's army during the American civil war. Franz Sigel was one of the Forty-eighters, and he lead a large company of German militiamen from southern Illinois and southeast Missouri into St. Louis in 1861, where supported General Nathaniel Lyon in protecting the very large armory there which Confederate sympathizers had thought to seize. Sigel followed Lyon with his largely German-speaking militia into southern Missouri, to the battle of Wilson's Creek, called the Bull Run of the West. There, his attack was repulsed, and when General Lyon was killed, he lead the retreat of the Federal forces. His greatest military glory came at the battle of Pea Ridge in 1862, not far from the scene of his first battle at Wilson's Creek. There, he covered himself with glory leading both U.S. Regulars and U.S. volunteers. Alas, he was sent east to command the First Corps of John Pope's doomed Army of Virginia. Although the regiments of the First Brigade, First Division, First Corps performed so well that they earned the sobriquet of "The Iron Brigade," Pope was up against Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, who held on until Lee and Longstreet arrived with the rest of the army and attacked Pope's left flank as he was launching his third straight day of failed attacks on Jackson's position. Because of the performance of the First Corps, Sigel's career was unmarred while Pope rode off into obscurity. Sigel's troops had one more meeting in store with Thomas Jackson. At the battle of Chancellorsville in 1863, Jackson marched his corps completely around Joe Hooker's army, and attacked the rear of the army just as the sun was setting.

A good deal of Sigel's success early in the war had been based on his political connections in the German-American community, and his ability to recruit German immigrants for the army. After the debacle of Second Manassas (also called Second Bull Run), Sigel went on a recruiting tour in the winter of 1862-1863. The troops raised were formed into the XIth Corps, comprised mostly of German and Polish immigrants. They saw no action until that fateful evening at Chancellorsville, when Jackson's troops came screaming out of the forest while they were slaughtering cattle and preparing their evening meal. Unable to understand the orders (often conflicting) of English-speaking officers, the Corps melted away into a panicked mob.

A popular marching song of the war was "I'm going to fight mit Sigel!" and the German and Polish troops he had recruited were disgruntled when Sigel was relieved of his command even before the battle of Chancellorsville. It has never been clear why he was relieved, although Henry Halleck, then Lincoln's commander of the Army, detested Sigel, which is probably explanation enough. After the war, Sigel pursued his interests in education, and worked as a journalist, while filling many offices in New York (both as a Republican and a Democrat--perhaps he was more interested in holding office than in party politics). He died in his home in 1902, 40 years after his greatest military glories. If not the best German-American general, he certainly was the most well-known and flamboyant.

Louis (Ludwig) Blenker was the another great Forty-Eighter general of the War. After 1848, he had started a small business and a farm in upstate New York, and raised a volunteer regiment in 1861. At the battle of Bull Run, his brigade of the Fifth division was the only significant body of troops who did not break and run, and he covered the retreat of the army. Accusations were leveled against him for corruption and graft, although he was stoutly defended in the German-American press. Many of these accusations came from Alexander Schimmelfennig, who called him a "bum" in public, and from Sigel, Carl Schurz and Karl Heinzen who worked to undermine him behind the scenes. Many in the German-American community charged Schurz with attempting to take over Blenker's command, although this was given to Sigel when he came east. Blenker and his troops performed well against Jackson at the battle of Cross Keys in 1862, but his health was failling. He had fallen from his horse at Warrenton, Virginia after the battle of Bull Run, and never fully recovered. He left the army early in 1863, and died in his New York home in October, 1863. Ironically, in spite of the charges of graft and corruption, he died impoverished, and his wife and daughters only survived on the charity of officers who had served under him. Staff officers who had served under him, Americans and not Germans, were later convicted of the grafting with which his name had been smeared. German-American infighting and backbiting in the army is a sad comment on people who served the republic so well.

Carl Schurz was yet another Forty-Eighter who served in Mr. Lincoln's army. In fact, using his political connections, he got an interview with Lincoln, and convinced him to give him a commission in the United States Army. He first served under Sigel at Second Bull Run, and like Sigel, no blame was attached to him for that debacle. When Sigel's new XI Corps was formed, Schurz was given command of a division. When Sigel was relieved, he was replaced by O. O. Howard, who distrusted Schimmelfennig and cordially detested Schurz. When the XIth Corps broke and ran at Gettysburg, Schurz and Schimmelfennig were blamed by Howard for not keeping a stronger hand on their troops. Although this may seem like looking for scapegoats, Howard's subsequent career justified the faith that General Meade placed in him. Schurz's military star sank thereafter, although he performed well in the battles around Chattanooga in the fall of 1863. After Lincoln's death, President Johnson sent to the south to report on conditions, but they had a falling out, and that was more or less the end of his military career

After the war he pursued a successful career as a newspaperman first in Detroit and then in Missouri, in the the lively and often contentious German language press of his day. He is also a footnote in history for hiring Joseph Pulitzer for his first newspaper job. He was elected Senator for Missouri, and as usual with him, he was famous and controversial. He was later appointed Secretary of the Interior, and attempted to establish a Liberal Republican Party to oppose Grant, which went over like a lead balloon. He died in 1906, and is buried in Sleepy Hollow, New York. His widow started the kindergarten movement in the United States. Schurz was also famous for saying: "My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right." Generally, the "My country, right or wrong" portion is all that is remembered. Carl Schurz was the best challenger to Sigel for most flamboyant German-American of his age.

It seems that much of this ethnic analysis leaves out the original group that came here to make the eastern seaboard the "mitochondria" of the new nation. That being Protestants from Great Britain. Without them, none of these other new kids on the block, so to speak, would not have had a country to come to. And, let's not forget that the Lone Ranger would have been speaking Spanish, if there was a Lone Ranger in the Southwest.

Like I said before, some threads devolve, in my opinion, to a mutual admiration society.

The fact remains that all these other groups sweated and toiled, and died in wars, for the benefit of a new nation that offered low cost land for those that could work it. Oddly, some groups just stayed in the cities for one reason or another and didn't really take advantage of what the country offered. But, they today tend to believe they have as much say as those that had family names become either street/town names, or county names. Sort of pathetic, in my opinion. Humility is not something our culture promulgates, in my opinion.

Shut up Miller, you idiot.

My observations are that presently Scandanavian and German Americans have intermarried to the point that many today just identify as Protestant (i.e., Lutheran) Americans.

For those in Europe, their umwelt might give them the impression that people in the U.S. cling to ancestors' identities. The bigger reality (aka, umgebung) might run counter to that.

In my mind, the U.S. being so large and diverse, the more interesting question might be what identity offers the greatest level of comfort in being a U.S. citizen. I tend to think that Protestantism, with its reliance on the bible as a veritable religious constitution of sorts, meshes well will the manner of American government being based on its Constitution. I wonder if the parliamentary form of government, without a constitution, is more comfortable for those of the Catholic persuasion, since the Vatican has a parliament (aka, College of Cardinals) and it is not locked in to a written form of governing (Limbo declared not of the same import; meat on Friday declared not of the same import; waiting a century to Canonize a Saint not of the same import). In effect, I believe that being a Protestant American offers the greatest level of comfort for accepting the status quo. Catholics might just have to deal with a degree of cognitive dissonance to feel comfortable with how the U.S. functions under a constitution. A constitution might just promulgate a degree of conservative feeling that believing Catholics might not feel comfortable with? Just my attempt to understand my umgebung.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakob_von_Uexk%C3%BCll

Am I now?

Yes, you are. The earliest settlers on the coast of what we call New England were fishermen from Europe, Basque Catholics, French Catholics and Protestants, and overwhelmingly, Portuguese Catholics. Among the so-called Pilgrims, many were Anglicans, who did not consider themselves to be Protestants. High church Anglicans called themselves Catholics well into the 20th century. The southwest portion of what we now call Delaware and the eastern portion of what we now call Pennsylvania was settled by Swedes. Many of the early settlers of the Carolinas, who were not Anglicans, were French Protestants. Once again, a large proportion of the Anglicans did not consider themselves to Protestants, and called themselves Catholics. William Penn, when he was granted the colony of Penn's Woods (Pennsylvania) declared religious tolerance, and many of the early colonists were German Protestants and German Catholics who had found themselves in Protestant states as a result of the treaty of Westphalia. Maryland was granted as a colony to George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, by Charles I as a colony for English Catholics. Much of northern Maine was originally settled by French Catholics from Acadia, and the name Maine comes from the French province. French Catholics were the first European settlers in what would one day be called New England. Early English attempts at colonies there failed.

Arthur Schlesinger, Sr. estimated that as much as half of the population of the American colonies on the eve of the revolution were unchurched. In that same era, 35% of the population of Maryland and about 25% of the population of Virginia were convicts, very few of whom were recorded in congregation documents. Miller/Foofie is a religious bigot, and loves to attempt to reduce matters to ludicrously simplistic and utterly false stereotypes. From the very first, the North American colonies were not in the least a monolith of English Protestants.

Yes, there have been numerous Norwegians in the Chicago area in the past. Even more than the Norwegians, have been about 1 million Poles from Poland, mainly Catholics, who settled on the SouthSide of Chicago , where many worked in the steel mills on the SouthEast side. When the mills closed, and the areas increased in number of Hispanics and Afro-Americans, many of the Polish Americans moved to the suburbs surrounding Chicago.

Another important group of individuals, who settled on the far SouthSide of Chicago were the Dutch, who settled in the West Pullman, Pullman and Roseland areas . Many also settled in South Holland, which was a little further south of about 127th Street ( again on the far SouthSide).

Their history has been documented in "Dutch Chicago, A History of the Hollanders in the Windy City" by Robert P. Swierenca ( 2002).

Edna Ferber's novel "So Big" was an attempt to portray the SouthSide Dutch, who for many years ran giant "truck gardens" than trucked the produce daily into Chicago. After the success of her novel, Ferber's book was transformed into a movie, which was also called "So Big".

Besides "Truck Gardens", the Holland Dutch ( as they were known on the SouthSide of Chicago) were famous for their involvement in the so-called
"Private Scavenger's " business.

Also, well known was the involvement of the Dutch in the Pullman sleeper car factory, on the Southside. Most of the Dutch at this factory were capenters, while most ( if not all ) of the Afro-Americans were porters on the Pullman cars. When the Pullman plant was struck, all of the Dutch supposedly stayed on the job and broke through the Union barriers that had been set up. The Pullman porters, however, struck the plant, refusing to work.

Additionaly, the Florence hotel, built by George Pullman in honor of his daughter, remains today on the same site, as a national landmark.

Mrs. Obama grew up, not very far from the Pullman plant, but I don't think she lived in either Roseland or West Pullman. I think her family lived East of State St, while most of the Dutch in the Roseland/Pullman area lived West of State St.

Finally, most of the Dutch left the SouthSide for the suburbs, as their neighborhoods increased in number of Afro-Americans and Hispanics.

Chapter of 15 of "Dutch Chicago" is concened with "The Other Hollanders: Jews and Catholics". I don't know how many Dutch Jews settled in the Roseland- West Pullman area, but I was never aware of any Synagogues in that area.

Not only did the Swedes settle in Delaware - they even had a colony there between 1638 - 1655. It was called New Sweden. New Sweden was conquered by the Dutch in 1655, during the Second Northern War, and incorporated into New Netherland.