Immigration in Biddeford & Saco
Everyone that is not indigenous to this part of the world was either an immigrant or an enslaved person, beginning with English settlers in the 1600s.
The immigration, education, legal and other systems in the United States have perpetuated the notion that this country is a "melting pot" where all are welcome so long as they contribute. This narrative can be harmful in a number of ways; notably, it obscures the reality that the country was built on stolen land, and it ignores the institutional and interpersonal discrimination experienced by each successive wave of immigrants.
By 1880 almost 50% of Biddeford's residents were foreign-born and their cultures and religions often differed significantly from those of the old Yankee families. The largest groups hailed from Canada (25%) and Ireland (12%), two heavily Catholic countries. Later, in the early 1900s, people arrived from Italy and Scandinavia. Jewish people came from Eastern Europe. Later Albanians and Syrian-Lebanese people came to Maine. It was a group of Albanians in Biddeford that built one of the country’s first mosques. Later, political unrest brought refugees from Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos as well.
While most immigrants were drawn to the area to work in the textile mills, many became entrepreneurs and opened small businesses on Main Street. These included restaurants, groceries, and shops selling clothing, paper, and “fancy goods.”
In the 1840s and 50s, the Know-Nothing party gained prominence. Formally known as the American Party, this national group had been founded to fight immigration and the spread of Catholicism.
Bath’s Catholic church, occupied by a largely Irish population, was burned down in an anti-Catholic riot in July 1854—one of several such incidents that took place in coastal Maine in the 1850s
"Burning of Old South Church, Bath, Maine" by John Hilling, c. 1854
The Ku Klux Klan
The rise of the Maine Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s was anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic. This rise came after WWI and the Red Scare. One hundred years ago, in 1924, the KKK tried to march from Saco to Biddeford. In an early show of unity and community, stories tell that the Irish of Biddeford banded with the Franco-Americans and blocked the Bradbury Bridge, while the French blocked the Main Street Bridge. They were armed and ready to defend their rights and city against the Ku Klux Klan. Saco constables were guarding the bridges at Elm Street and York Hill. They prevented the marchers from crossing into Biddeford. The Irish and the Franco-Americans were waiting for them on the other side, armed with rocks and bricks, daring them to cross into their city. This was 100 years ago! This action was recently commemorated with the Biddeford and Saco mayors meeting on the bridge.
The Chinese Exclusion Act
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 limited Chinese immigration, and then the 1924 Exclusion Act set quotas that favored western and northern Europeans and excluded Asians and eastern Europeans as well as Italians, and Jews. In addition to institutional racism, Chinese-Americans also faced individual, often violent, persecution. Chinese people were run out of town, beaten, lynched, and massacred in cities and towns across the US during the 19th century. In Maine, many Chinese residents, were treated with derision and antagonism.
Newspapers referred to them as “moon-eyed lepers” and heathens and accused them of stealing jobs from Mainers. There are many documented assaults against Chinese-Americans and their businesses in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Ramadan celebration
Immigrants Today
Since 2000, Maine has become home to people seeking refuge from violent conflict and persecution in Africa and the Middle East. Asylum seekers and refugees in Maine have come from over 30 countries in Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Republic, the Middle East, Eastern Africa, South and Central America, and the Caribbean. In recent years, refugee populations hail primarily from Somalia, Sudan, Congo DRC, Ethiopia, Burma, Iran, and Iraq. Many restaurants and stores in Biddeford owned and operated by local Immigrants. These communities work with groups like Biddeford & Saco Rising, The Welcome Center (located at John F. Kennedy School in Biddeford), and the new Biddeford Gateway office. An additional office at Young School in Saco serves as a “hub” for the most vulnerable and transient students in our community. English as a Second Language or English Language Learners classes are available through both Biddeford and Saco’s Adult Education programs.
Additional Resources
99 Years Podcast - a Black exploration of the deliberate creation of the whitest state in the nation
This research was compiled as part of The Inclusive Walking Tour, which took place in Biddeford on October 27, 2024. For more information about this walk, click here.
For more research related to this area, click on the tags below. To download a hi-res version of the posters below for educational use, please contact where@atlanticblackbox.com.
This walk was a collaboration between Community Change Inc., Biddeford Saco area Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), Heart of Biddeford, the City of Biddeford, and Atlantic Black Box.