My great grandfather came to America from Southern Italy in 1905. He was here for 20 years before he became a naturalized citizen. By that time, he had already had 9 American-born children.
The year before his naturalization, the government enacted a law that drastically limited the number of immigrants from Southern & Eastern European countries, especially Italians & Eastern European Jews. Supporters of the Act wanted to establish a distinct American identity by favoring native-born in order to “maintain the racial preponderance of the basic strain on our people and thereby to stabilize the ethnic composition of the population”. In other words, they wanted to keep the country “white”. (For those of you who don’t know, Italians were considered racially inferior to white Anglo Saxons.)
Without becoming a citizen, he may not have been able to re-enter the country if he had returned to Italy to visit friends and relatives. He wasn’t deported, he was given the opportunity to become a citizen after being here for 20 years without committing to citizenship.
My paternal great grandfather emigrated from Poland in 1905 and was also here for 20 years before becoming a citizen. He most likely had finally chosen to become a citizen for the same reason that my Italian great grandfather did, as people from his country were also being restricted. He had 15 American-born children.
I wonder how many Americans know their American History. Not what they were taught in school, or told by the media, but what their family’s American experience actually was and how similar it could be to many immigrants today.
The Butterfly Voyage 