Americanization (immigration)

Americanization is the process of an immigrant to the United States of America becoming a person who shares American values, beliefs and customs and is fully assimilated into American society. This process typically involves learning the English language and adjusting to American culture, values and customs, while simultaneously maintaining or incorporating one's own. Historically, the ethnic groups that had undergone Americanization have not only retained their traditional cuisines, but also spread them to wider American population; the best example of this being the adoption and popularity of pizza, a mainstay of modern American cuisine.

The Americanization movement was a nationwide organized effort in the 1910s to bring millions of recent immigrants into the American cultural system. 30+ states passed laws requiring Americanization programs; in hundreds of cities the chamber of commerce organized classes in English language and American civics; many factories cooperated. Over 3000 school boards, especially in the Northeast and Midwest, operated after-school and Saturday classes. Labor unions, especially the coal miners, (United Mine Workers of America) helped their members take out citizenship papers. In the cities, the YMCA and YWCA were especially active, as were organization of descendants of the founding generation such as the Daughters of the American Revolution. The movement climaxed during World War I, as eligible young immigrant men were drafted into the Army, and the nation made every effort to integrate the European ethnic groups into the national identity.

The initial stages of immigrant Americanization began in the 1830s. Prior to 1820, foreign immigration to the United States was predominantly from the British Isles. There were other ethnic groups present, such as the Frenchmen, Swedes and Germans in Colonial times, but comparably, these ethnic groups were a minuscule fraction of the whole. Soon after 1820, for the first time, there began a substantial Irish and German migration to the United States. Furthermore, foreign immigration was not so problematic to successful Americanization up until 1885, due to the overwhelmingly Northwestern European majority of foreign immigrants to the United States maintaining stability within their bubble of natives and newcomers. The numbers of immigrants coming from Southern and Eastern Europe gradually began to sky-rocket. From 1885, ninety percent of newcomers were from Northwestern Europe. By 1905, three-fourths of these newcomers were born in Southern and Eastern Europe, where their religion was mainly Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic and Jewish; successful Americanization became more difficult because of the notable contrasts of customs, habits and ideals to those of Northern and Western European immigrants.

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