Italians: The Largest Number of Europeans to Immigrate to the United States
Italians are the largest number of Europeans to have immigrated to the United States. They were part of one group of many people who left their homeland to seek a better life in the United States of America. America was known to be the land of opportunity so they decided to seek their luck there. A lot of people from other European Nations had also immigrated to the United States so that they could start new lives there. Due to the sad economic state of Italy, lots of Italians immigrated to America. Despite their common skin and color, the Italians found it hard to assimilate amongst the American society. The Americans discriminated them against. Oscar Handlin, in his 1951 Pulitzer Prize winning study "the Uprooted" wrote, "...the history of immigration is a history of alienation and its consequences". In line with this theme, he emphasizes the isolation and loneliness of the immigrant, "the broken homes, and interruptions of a familiar life, separation from known surroundings, the becoming a foreigner and ceasing to belong."(Frederic Cople Jaher, 1970)There were several factors which provoked the Italian people to immigrate. Poverty, overpopulation and natural disasters are some of these
(Tomasi, 1978) In order to make ends meet, the women of the immigrant families had to go out and find work. There was always the problem of not having enough work being available for Italian men. I Bill to attend college when they returned from war. Due to this reason a lot of Italians would look down each other in Italy. Language BarrierAnother factor was the language barrier which was a difficult obstacle for the Italian people. Lots of Italians were lynched, murdered, beaten or shot by mobs in several states. About 70,000 Italians had arrived before the start of the twentieth century and they were followed by thousands of Italians in the next two decades. Hardships and rough times troubled them but they managed to make it through all that to become respectable citizens of society. The Italian people were of the Roman Catholic faith living in a country dominated by Protestants. (Hutchmacher, 1967) Then there was also the point that the Irish priests could not speak the Italian language nor did they follow the Italian customs. when the Americans were exposed to the Italian culture for a longer period of time they became used to it. This was a big problem for the Italian men as they did not like their women to work. They preferred to be the breadwinners of the family while the women took care of the house. This situation led to a reliance on family, kin, and village ties. Hundreds of thousands of Italian men took part in the war.
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