Americanization (immigration)
Americanization is the process of an immigrant to the United States becoming a person who shares
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 the 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.[2]
As a form of
Background
The initial stages of immigrant Americanization began in the 1830s. Prior to 1820, foreign
According to the United States Census Bureau, in 1910, there were about 13,000,000 foreign-born and 33,000,000 residents of a foreign origin living in the United States. About 3,000,000 of the foreign-born over ten years of age were unable to speak English and about 1,650,000 were unable to read or write in any language. Close to half of the foreign-born populace were males of voting age; but only 4 out of every 1,000 of them were being educated to learn English and about American citizenship. In total, about five million people in the United States were unable to speak English, and of those two million were illiterate. World War I (which started in 1914) and the years immediately following represented a turning point in the Americanization process.[4] In 1910, 34% of foreign males of draft age were unable to speak English; about half a million of the registered alien male draftees were unable to understand military orders given in English. At the same time, more immigrants displaced by the war began arriving.[3]
A number of Americans feared the growing presence of immigrants in the country posed a sufficient threat to the political order. Americans' awareness of and attitudes towards immigrants and their foreign relations changed dramatically with America's increasing role in the world.[5] As Americans' views towards immigrants were growing more negative, fearful, and xenophobic, the United States resorted to programs of forced Americanization, as well as the immigration restriction acts of the 1920s, including the Immigration Act of 1924, primarily focused on restricting immigration from Southern and Southeastern Europe, in addition, to heavily restrict immigration of Africans, and a complete ban on immigration of Arabs and Asians. At the same time, a new positive outlook of a pluralist society began to progress.[clarification needed][6]
History
The term "Americanization" was brought into general use during the organization of "Americanization Day" celebrations in a number of cities for July 4, 1915. Interest in the process of assimilation had been increasing for many years before such programs were designated "Americanization." The publication of a report of the
The National Americanization Committee was established in May, 1915, with aid from the Committee for Immigration in America in the pursuit to bring all American citizens together as one to celebrate common rights as Americans, wherever born. The committee was so effective that it turned into a powerful organization, dealing with many aspects of American society, such as governmental departments, schools, courts, churches, women's clubs, institutions, and groups as units of co-operation. This committee was responsible for the standardization of Americanization work and methods, stimulating immigrant thought, interest and activity. Their many experiments were later incorporated into governmental, educational, and business systems of the country. Its services and publications were free.[3]
During the period of mass immigration, the main target group of Americanization projects included Jews and Catholics and from southern and southeastern Europe. Churches, unions, and charities attempted to Americanize the new immigrants both formally through structured programs and informally at work through the environment created by management. Americanization also suggests a broader process that includes the everyday struggle of immigrants to understand their new environment and how they invent ways to cope with it.[4]
"During the late nineteenth Century, skilled Germans, British, Irish and native-born male workers built strong craft unions and settle into comfortable communities. Through their craft unions, churches, fraternal organizations, and other institutions, they created their own cultural worlds, ones that often left little room for newcomers."[4]
Private agencies also gave high priority to Americanization projects. The
In the aftermath the target populations learned English and adopted American life styles in speech, clothing and recreation. They clung to their historic religions. They not only retained their traditional cuisines,[10] but they also introduced the wider American public to the taste for pizza, bagels and tacos. Historian Vincent Cannato adds: "From sports and food to movies and music, they haven’t just contributed to the culture, they have helped redefine it."[11]
Social workers generally supported the Americanization movement, but not all of them. Edith Terry Bremer strongly opposed Americanization programs before the war and wrote that Americanization stimulated fear and hate. She then served as a special agent for the United States Immigration Commission Bremer was concerned that the existing public and private agencies serving immigrants largely ignored women so she made her most important contribution by establishing the first International Institute in New York City as a YMCA experiment in December, 1910.[12]
World War I
Interest in the foreign born in the United States was quickened by the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Although the United States remained neutral until April 1917, the war in Europe cast attention on the many recent immigrants in the United States. Of special concern was the issue of their political loyalty, whether to the United States or to their mother country, and the long-term tension regarding assimilation into American society.
Numerous agencies became active, such as the Councils of National Defense, the
Frederic C. Howe, Commissioner at Ellis Island, asked mayors nationwide to make July 4, 1915, Americanization night in their communities.[15]
Impact of war
Millions of recently arrived immigrants who had originally intended to return to the mother country were unable to return to Europe because of the war from 1914 to 1919. The great majority decided to stay permanently in America, and foreign language use declined dramatically as they switched to English. Instead of resisting Americanization they welcomed it, often signing up for English classes and using their savings to buy homes and bring over other family members.[16]
Kellor, speaking for the NAC in 1916, proposed to combine efficiency and patriotism in her Americanization programs. It would be more efficient, she argued, once the factory workers could all understand English and therefore better understand orders and avoid accidents. Once Americanized, they would grasp American industrial ideals and be open to American influences and not subject only to strike agitators or foreign propagandists. The result, she argued, would transform indifferent and ignorant residents into understanding voters, to make their homes into American homes, and to establish American standards of living throughout the ethnic communities. Ultimately she argued it would, "unite foreign-born and native alike in enthusiastic loyalty to our national ideals of liberty and justice."[17]
1920s
After World War I, the emphasis on Americanization programs was gradually shifted from emergency propaganda to a long-time educational program, when a study of conditions in the draft army made by the
Late 20th century
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After the 1970s, proponents of multiculturalism began attacking Americanization programs as coercive and not respectful of immigrant culture. A major debate today is on whether speaking English is an essential component of being American.[18]
Immigrant groups
Cajuns
The French-speaking
Dutch
Leonard Dinnerstein and David M. Reimers showed that immigrants who arrived during the 19th century in large numbers from western and northern Europe had mostly been assimilated. They call this process the loss of "Old World culture" including increasing rates of intermarriage outside the native ethnic group and not using native languages in daily life, church, school, or media. This process continues across generations and these immigrant groups have become more assimilated into the mainstream American culture over time.[21]
Irish
The Irish were the most influential ethnic group regarding the initial waves of immigration to the United States and of Americanization. Newly arrived immigrants in American cities had a hard time avoiding the Irish. There was no way around the Irish for the newcomers, as the Irish were present in every aspect of American working-class society. Between 1840 and 1890, more than 3,000,000 Irish immigrants had entered the United States, and by 1900, about 5,000,000 of their first and second generations were settled in. There were more Irish living in the United States than in Ireland. Irish Americans played a major role in the newcomer's Americanization. In other words, identity in the United States emerged from dynamic relationships among ethnic groups, as well as from particular groups' own distinct history and traditions.[22]
The newer ethnic groups were not directly assimilated to the American cultural mainstream, but rather, there was a gradual process of acculturation, where newcomer immigrants acculturated to a new way of life, learning new skills and habits through their unique experiences. This form of Americanization was a process carried out partially through force and coercion, that occurred in settlement houses, night school classes, and corporate programs, where these working-class immigrants were pressed to learn
By the late nineteenth century, racism was genuinely rooted in the world views of many workers and was passed on to newcomer immigrants, expediting the process of class unity.[4]
Jews
Jacob Schiff played a major role as a leader of the American Jewish community in the late 19th century. At a time of increasing demand for immigration restriction, Schiff supported and worked for Jewish Americanization. A Reform Jew, he backed the creation of the Conservative Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He took a stand favoring a modified form of Zionism, reversing his earlier opposition. Above all, Schiff believed that American Jewry could live in both the Jewish and American worlds, creating a balance that made possible an enduring American Jewish community.[24]
The National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), founded in Chicago in 1893, had the goals of philanthropy and the Americanization of Jewish immigrants. Responding to the plight of Jewish women and girls from Eastern Europe, the NCJW created its Department of Immigrant Aid to assist and protect female immigrants from the time of their arrival at Ellis Island until their settlement at their final destination. The NCJW's Americanization program included assisting immigrants with housing, health, and employment problems, leading them to organizations where women could begin to socialize, and conducting English classes while helping them maintain a strong Jewish identity. The council, pluralistic rather than conformist, continued its Americanization efforts and fought against restrictive immigration laws after World War I. At the forefront of its activities was the religious education of Jewish girls, who were ignored by the Orthodox community.[25] Americanization did not mean giving up traditional ethnic foods.[26]
Italians
World War I closed off most new arrivals and departures from Italy. The
Mexicans
Ethnic
In Merton E. Hill's “The Development of an Americanization Program,” Hill states that “the public must be aroused to a realization of the great and immediate need of making provision for educational, vocational, and sanitation programs that will result in…promoting the use of the English language, the right American customs, and the best possible standards of American life.”[30] The goal was to integrate Ethnic Mexican youth into American society so they would become truly American in the public's view. This Americanization took over the people's Mexican culture and made labeled “outwardly Mexican” culture as un-American.
The Americanization efforts were also passed on through the home. From the point of view of Anglo-Americans, the best way to change the youth was through the help of mothers. Mothers were one of the preferred vessels of the Americanization of Mexicans because they were the ones that spent more time in the home and they could pass on their learned American values to the youth. In order to Americanize the mothers, they were taught through the help of the Home Teacher Act of 1915. With this act, teachers were allowed to enter the homes of Mexicans in California and teach the women how to be American and to pass on values to their children.[31]
Other than the mothers, another effort that was made to Americanize the youth was to Americanize young Mexican girls. Young girls were starting to be taught in schools about different American values and customs through activities such as sewing, budgeting, and motherhood.[32] The same idea for educating young girls was the reason that they were educating mothers, the girls would grow up to be mothers and have an influence on the lives of Mexican Americans in and outside the household.
Education was the main focus of the Americanization efforts. Soon, it became engraved in the minds of Mexican-Americans that the best way to become a part of American society was through leaving their own Mexican culture behind. Throughout the southwest, new organizations were being created to fully integrate Mexican-Americans into society. One example is the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), which was founded in 1929 and only allowed United States Citizens to join. Found in a LULAC pamphlet is the phrase “We believe that education is the foundation for the cultural grown and development of this nation and that we are obligated to protect and promote the education of our people in accordance with the best American principles and standards,” showing the organization's dedication to Americanization. Through organizations that supported Americanization being created before World War II, there came a larger divide between Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans.[33]
Some Mexican Americans also rejected Americanization by creating a distinct identity influenced by the
Poles
The study of
Other uses
The term also is used for the cultural transformation of areas brought into the U.S., such as Alaska,[42] and on the assimilation of Native Americans.[43]
Impact on other countries
The term Americanization has been used since 1907 for the American impact on other countries.[44] Other countries often perceive America to be one, if not the most powerful, modern nation in the world. As a result many other countries have attempted to replicate elements of the American way of life. [45]
See also
- Americanization (foreign culture and media)
- Anglicisation of names
- Melting pot
- Civic nationalism, and its converse, ethnic nationalism
- Nativism
- Immigration to the United States of America
- Salad bowl (cultural idea)
- Americanization Now and Then
References
- ISBN 978-1-118-66320-2, retrieved June 25, 2022
- ^ John F. McClymer, War and Welfare: Social Engineering in America, 1890–1925 (1980), pp. 79, 105–52
- ^ .
- ^ a b c d James R. Barrett, "Americanization From The Bottom Up: Immigration and the Remaking of the Working Class in the United States, 1880–1930." Journal of American History (1998) 79#3 pp. 996–1020. in JSTOR
- ISBN 9781400842223.
- JSTOR 27501011.
- ^ a b c d Reynolds, Francis J., ed. (1921). Collier's New Encyclopedia. New York: P. F. Collier & Son Company. .
- ISBN 978-0-7864-1359-1.
- ^ Paula M. Kane, Separatism and Subculture: Boston Catholicism, 1900–1920 (2001) pp. 39–40.
- ISBN 9781442208742.
- ^ Vincent J. Cannato "How America became Italian," Washington Post Oct 9, 2015
- ISBN 9780674627321.
- ^ McClymer, War and Welfare pp. 110–11
- ISBN 978-0-7864-1359-1.
- ^ "Great Responsibilities and New Global Power". The National WWII Museum | New Orleans. October 23, 2020. Retrieved October 17, 2023.
- ^ Thomas J. Archdeacon, Becoming American (1984) pp. 115, 186–87
- ^ McClymer, War and Welfare, pp. 112–13
- ISSN 0021-8758.
- ^ ISBN 9781604734966. Retrieved May 30, 2013.
- ^ Shane Bernard, The Cajuns: Americanization of a People (2002)
- ^ Peter Ester. "Double Dutch? Formative years, youth memories, and the life course of older Dutch-Americans: the role of ethnicity and religion".
- ^ a b Barett, James (2012). The Irish Way: Becoming American in the Multiethnic City. New York: the Penguin Group. pp. 1–12.
- ^ Barrett, p 127.
- ISSN 0021-6704
- ^ Seth Korelitz, "'A Magnificent Piece of Work': the Americanization Work of the National Council of Jewish Women." American Jewish History 1995 83(2): 177–203.
- ISBN 9780814780008.
- ^ Christopher M. Sterba, Good Americans: Italian and Jewish immigrants during the First World War (2003)
- ^ Humbert S. Nelli, "Italians," in Stephan Thernstrom, ed. Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups (1980) 545–60
- ^ Sanchez, George J.. Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945. Cary, GB: Oxford University Press, USA, 1995. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 19 April 2017.
- ^ Vargas, Zaragosa. Major Problems in Mexican History: Merton E. Hill Outlines a Program for Americanizing the Mexicans, copyright 1931. University of California Santa Barbara, 1999.
- ^ The Home Teacher: The Act, with a Working Plan and Forty Lessons in English. The Commission of Immigration and Housing in California, 1915.
- ^ Ellis, Pearl Idelia. Americanization through Homemaking. Department of Americanization and Homemaking, Covina City Elementary School. Library of Congress, 1929.
- ^ League of United Latin American Citizens. History of LULAC: founded February 17, 1929, pamphlet, Date Unknown, University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History. Web. 20 April 2017.
- ISBN 9781478003007.
- ISBN 9781441167972.
- ^ ISBN 9780674038264.
- ISBN 9780822389385.
- ISBN 9781877864971.
- ^ Ana Castillo (May 25, 2006). How I Became a Genre-jumper (TV broadcast of a lecture). Santa Barbara, California: UCTV Channel 17.
- ISBN 9781585444939.
- ISBN 978-83-210-0482-2.
- ^ Ted C. Hinckley, The Americanization of Alaska, 1867–1897 (1972)
- ^ Francis P. Prucha, Americanizing the American Indians: Writings by the "Friends of the Indians," 1880–1900. (1973)
- ^ Samuel E. Moffett, The Americanization of Canada (1907) full text online; see also Ralph Willett, The Americanization of Germany, 1945–1949 (1989)
- ^ "Americanization of East Asia". Association for Asian Studies. Retrieved November 1, 2023.
Further reading
- Barrett, James R. "Americanization from the Bottom, Up: Immigration and the Remaking of the American Working Class, 1880–1930." Journal of American History (1992) 79#3 pp. 996–1020. in JSTOR
- Bernard, Shane. The Cajuns: Americanization of a People (2002).
- Cowan, Neil M. and Cowan, Ruth Schwartz. Our Parents' Lives: The Americanization of Eastern European Jews. (1989).
- McClymer, John F. War and Welfare: Social Engineering in America, 1890–1925 (1980)
- Olneck, Michael R. "Americanization and the Education Of Immigrants, 1900–1925: An Analysis Of Symbolic Action." American Journal of Education 1989 97(4): 398–423; shows that Americanization programs help liberate youth from the tight confines of traditional families in JSTOR
- Olneck, Michael R. "What Have Immigrants Wanted from American Schools? What Do They Want Now? Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Immigrants, Language, and American Schooling," American Journal of Education, 115 (May 2009), 379–406.
- Seltzer, Robert M. and Cohen, Norman S., eds. The Americanization of the Jews. (1995).
- Sterba, Christopher M. Good Americans: Italian and Jewish immigrants during the First World War (2003).
- Van Nuys, Frank. Americanizing the West: Race, Immigrants, and Citizenship, 1890–1930 (2002).
- Ziegler-McPherson, Christina A. Americanization in the States: Immigrant Social Welfare Policy, Citizenship, and National Identity in the United States, 1908–1929, (2009)
Historiography
- Brubaker, Rogers. "The return of assimilation? Changing perspectives on immigration and its sequels in France, Germany, and the United States." Ethnic and racial studies 24#4 (2001): 531–48. online
- Kazal, Russell A. "Revisiting Assimilation: The Rise, Fall, and Reappraisal of a Concept in American Ethnic History." American Historical Review (1995) 100#2 pp. 437–71 in JSTOR
- Steinberg, Stephen. "The long view of the melting pot." Ethnic and Racial Studies 37#5 (2014): 790–94. online
Primary sources
- Bogardus, Emory Stephen. Essentials of Americanization (1920).
- Brooks, Charles Alvin. Christian Americanization: A Task for the Churches (1919).
- Discovery Set: Americanization. Social Welfare History Image Portal, Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries.