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The initial stages of immigrant Americanization began in the 1830's. 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 there bubble of natives and newcomers. The numbers of immigrants coming from Southern and Eastern Europe gradual began to sky-rocket. From 1885, ninety percent of newcomers were from Northwestern Europe. By 1905, three-fourths of them 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 Europe.^[3]

The result of these large movements of immigrants coming from Southeastern and Northwestern Europe presented a necessity for the Americanization of the country's foreign populace. 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 older than ten years of age were unable to speak English and about 1,650,000 could not read or write in any language. Nearly half of the foreign-born populace were males of voting age; only 4 out of every 1,000 of them were being educated to learn how to speak English and about American citizenship. In total, about 5,000,000 people in the United States were unable to speak English and of those 5,000,000, 2,000,000 of them were illiterate. The United states was not aware of the full extent of this growing issue until World War I in 1914. One example of the war's illumination of this problem of "non-Americanized" immigrants is, in 1910, only 34 percent 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. The war's massive influx of Immigrants to the United States escalated the problem and created more of a need for Americanization.^[3] World War I and the years immediately following represented a turning point in the Americanization process.^[4]

A number of Americans feared the growing presence of immigrants posed a sufficient threat to the political order. Americans' awareness of and attitudes towards immigrants and their foreign relations changed dramatically with America's role in the world.^[5] In due course, 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.^[6]

To Origins:

Additionally, the National Americanization Committee was formed in May, 1915, at the suggestion of the Committee for Immigrations in America 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 governmental departments, schools, courts, chambers of commerce, churches, women's clubs, patriotic organization, institutions, and groups as units of co-operation-not primarily with individuals. 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.

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.

Hill, Howard C.. “The Americanization Movement”. American Journal of Sociology 24.6 (1919): 609–642. Web...

Irish:

The Irish were the most influential ethnic group when it comes to early immigration to the United States and Americanization. Immigrants who arrived in American cities found it difficult to avoid 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 in the United States than in the nation of 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.

The newer ethnic groups were not assimilated in the sense of complete absorption of the cultural mainstream, but instead, there was a gradual acculturation, by which newer immigrants acquired knowledge and skills that allowed them to deal with their new city worlds, was central to their experience. This Americanization was partly a coercive process that occurred in settlement houses, night school classes, and corporate programs, where middle-class elites passed pressed WASP values on working-class immigrants. A key to understanding the multi-ethnic American city is that most immigrants came to understand their new world less through such formal programs, than through informal contacts with the Irish and other experienced working-class Americans of diverse ethnic backgrounds in the streets, churches, and theaters.

Inside the labor movement, the Catholic Church, and the political organizations of many working-class communities, the Irish occupied vital positions as Americanizers of later groups.

From the beginning days of foreign immigration to the United States all the way to present day America, immigrant Americanization is a very complex, 150-year process of gradual acculturation. The notion that Americanization is an easy, simple, one way process is inaccurate. The main reason behind this is that people tend to hold on to their cultures.