Have Democrats Always Been the "Immigrant Party?"

[electionsguy259]

I was reading a post from Noahpinion talking about how native-born Americans have always feared the political influence of newly-arrived immigrant groups, tracing back to the Irish in the 18th-19th centuries. He makes the interesting point that just as most immigrant groups vote Democratic today, the Irish immigrants back then voted for the Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans (and eventually the Democratic Party after 1828).

Does anyone know whether this is just a coincidence or if it reflects something inherent about the Democrats (and their opponents). And yes, I acknowledge there are a few immigrant groups- such as Cuban-Americans or Vietnamese-Americans- that are exceptions to the rule.

[darklordoftech]

Yes

[Fuzzy Bear]

Yes, but it depends on the immigrants. 

Immigrants fleeing Communism of all kinds trend Republican.

The liberal Germans who fled Germany and settled in the Texas Hill Country have been Republican, even in years when Texas was monolithically Democratic.

Rural German and Scandanavian immigrants have tended to be Republican.

It is the URBAN immigrants that have been the most heavily Democratic.

[Vice President Christian Man]

While they've been less xenophobic and nativist as a whole, it would be an oversimplification to claim they've always been the "Immigrant Party". The politicians representing the Jim Crow South was an outlier in this regard for obvious reasons, although labor groups including the AFL were strong supporters of the 1924 immigration ban for economic reasons. You also had many Republican's who supported religious and communist-fleeing refugees particularly during the Cold War, although there have been fewer Republican's who have advocated for this since the rise of the Tea Party and its aftermath.

[RINO Tom]

If you are desperate to simplify these things?  Yes, Democrats have largely always been more supported by more disadvantaged groups in the US (e.g., lower income and immigrant voters), with obvious exceptions for extreme circumstances (e.g., [poor] slaves or [immigrant] Cubans).  However, these things are not simple at all.

[wnwnwn]

Yes, since the jacksonian years.
There is a reason why Smith won those midwestern primaries in 1924.