Georgia, in spite of its fluctuating antebellum progress in textiles and railroads and whatnot, was probably the most hostile place in the South to European immigrants, especially as they competed with slave employment in the 1840s agricultural depression. According to Chad Morgan's research: "A law in 1845 established a color bar in the building trades. High taxes for hiring slaves followed in 1849 and 1850. When the subsequent resuscitation of cotton prices drew the urban slave population back to plantations, manufacturers and merchants became almost wholly dependent on white workers possessed of a dubious allegiance to slavery." I remember reading an anti-immigrant article published in some Athens paper in 1859 or so, near the peak of Georgia's prewar prosperity, and when Savannah's population was majority foreign-born. Meanwhile, Charleston's institutions, such as the German Friendly Society and the Catholic diocese, achieved notable success in molding their members into prosperous citizens, patriotic Southerners, and committed republicans against the tide of majority prejudice and mistrust, especially in the case of the Irish, which is why John England is a clerical "great man". Much of the same had already been achieved with the Huguenots, many of whom converted to Anglicanism.
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