Acculturation Of Italian Immigrants Essay

The American Revolution brought wind of immigration to America; these immigrants largely included citizens of Italy. Immigration involves a process of acculturation that occurs when there is a minority group that is a subunit of a larger group-or culture (Pozzetta). In any society, conformity and acceptance is necessary for a people to thrive as one nation. Acculturation involves a minority group still involved in traditions of their motherland while also accepting and practicing customs of the “new” nation as a whole. Italian immigrants stands to be perfect examples of Acculturation in the United States.

The influx of Italians into the United States resulted in aspects of Italian culture becoming a part of American tradition. Upon arrival to the United States, while most immigrants (non- Italian) used New York as a stop along the way until further migrating to other parts of the country, Italians made New York their home; one-third of Italian immigrants never moved past New York City. Though Italian immigrant clusters

scattered around New York City boroughs, there was the highest concentration within Manhattan (Library of Congress). Hence the notorious section of the city, on Mulberry Street, also known as “Little Italy”. The village atmosphere was characteristic to immigrants, many italian immigrants spoke to each other using their native language and involved vast amount of Italian tradition, “...the population of a single Italian village ended up living on the same block...and preserved many of the social institutions, habits of worship, grudges, and hierarchies from the old country” (Library of Congress). As time went on Italians became more and more infiltrated into American culture.- regardless the family based values and community oriented structure became more and more resilient. Distinguishing characteristics that remained relevant after the immigration to the United States include- “Little Italy settlements”, blue-collar occupations for children of immigrants, along with in-group marriages. All of these aspects support the argument that Italians are an extremely family oriented group (Pozzetta).
Further acculturation of the Italian American ethnicity emerged as a result of second and third generation children of immigrants joining forces with labor unions and lobbying for benefits and doing things that changed the attitude of the public toward their culture. Italian immigrants by the 1930’s also began to make more and more gains in politics and popular culture (Pozzetta). World War II was a benchmark for Italian American acceptance as much of the deployed military units were made up of Italian Americans. World War II also affected the acculturation of Italians in regards to many of the Italians leaving their ”little italy settlements” to fight the war (Cannato). Those who remained left their settlement to find opportunity in the suburbs, “further eroding the institutions and contadino culture that once thrived in ethnic settlements” (Pozzetta).
Sociopolitical factors impacted the assimilation and acculturation of Italians into the United States. Negative attitudes toward the Italian ethnicity were reared when the United States found themselves in conflict with Italy during World War II. The reason for this being that prior to the war Italians had pushed off the process of becoming naturalized citizens therefore were seen as enemies during this war time.While this stands to be true the conflict with Italy during World War II pushed many Italians to become naturalized as a means to deflect being branded an enemy in addition to naturalization, much of the United States military was made up Italians. Therefore World War II was key to Italians gaining acceptance as an ethnicity in the United States (Cannato).
Sociopolitical factors also involved popular figures such as actors, singer, and political figures. For example, soldiers such as Congressional Medal of Honor winner John Basilone, became a national hero and was celebrated regardless of his Italian background ( Library of Congress). Innately instances such as winning awards as Basilone did, gave Italians a better connotation as proof of loyalty to the nation was evident. Famous figures such as Frank Sinatra also gave Italian a better name- post war. The more people saw Italians succeeding in the United States the more they were accepted as an ethnicity and the negative attitudes towards the group further depleted. Popular figures such as Frank Sinatra, Joe DiMaggio, Frank Capra, and Don Ameche were among the heroes of Italian Americans (Library of Congress). These people helped the public view Italian Americans differently and change negative attitudes toward the group during transition into American culture.
The rates of intermarriage for Italian Americans increased dramatically among later generations. The average intermarriage rate for other ethnic groups stood to be 26 percent while the marriage rate was 33 percent for italian americans. The increase in intermarriage between italian americans reveals the acceptance of the group into the large scale society of the United States, “the 1980 census recorded 12.1 million individuals who claimed Italian ancestry. By 1990 this figure has risen to 14.7 million indicating that ethnicity remains an important and acceptable component of self-identification for substantial number of Italian Americans” (Pozzetta).
While acceptance was gained from public exposure through sociopolitical factors, stereotypes also began to form.

For example the release of The Godfather, while considered by many to be one of the best movies of all time, also created a host of prejudice and negative stereotypes. Italian Americans gained a reputation for organized crime and were often associated by the public as mobsters. This paradox was greatly supported by the movie, The Godfather (Fordham). The success of this movie innately resulted in other films and shows that encouraged the negative stereotypes of Italian Americans in regards to the mafia and organized crime. Italian American fought these stereotypes back with media releases that romanticize Italian culture. For example, movies that involve large family dynamics that create, “deep-seated nostalgia for the ‘old neighborhood’” and enhance the appreciation for Italian culture and combat negative stereotypes

(Cannato).
While first generation migrations of Italians to the United States involved immense negative reactions over time the process of acculturation depleted non-accepting attitudes and created a new ethnicity in itself widely accepted, widely respected, and proudly prideful amongst its people- Italian Americans.