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Originally Posted by aberkok
Ahhh...the rose coloured lens of history....
I wonder if "changed their name to blend in" could be interpreted as "hid their differences from intolerance."
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SOme changed their name, but many times the Ellis Island officials couldn's spell or pronounce the names given, so on the forms at entry, "Pappazogolias" might have become "Poppozog"
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NG - with your objection to what you think immigrants are doing now (setting up their own banks, stores and enclaves), that's been happening for hundreds of years. I grew up about a half mile from a predominantly Greek area in East Tennessee that still has lots of Greek shops.
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Perhaps my meaning wasn't clear. Sorry. The issue isn't setting up business, banks, etc., per se; of course, that's been done all along. It's the total segregation that has become prevailent and it's not as obvious as a city's Chinatown, which usually is about the same as any town's "Little Italy" for example. I'm speaking more of enclaves that don't involve themselves with the community at all, but instead make strides to be exclusionary of the very community they chose to settle in. Perhaps this doesn't occur all over; right now there's been almost weekly news reports regarding one NJ town with a huge particular immigrant population(an increase of 70% in ten years), that constantly makes demands of their town, with calls of discrimination, yet keep many of their enterprises exclusive to their own community.
Yes, we all go to 'Chinatown', "Little Italy"-Newark has a huge and very well known Portugese neighborhood. In almost all instances, all comers are welcome, it's just natural to congregate with those like oneself. It's the purposeful segregation that's the problem and, like I said, doing that then crying 'discrimination' when it's met is, to me, ridiculous. You have to give a little to get a little.
The other thing someone pointed out is a bone of contention with many-that people immigrate to work here, with no intention of becoming citizens, sending their American dollars home.
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My maternal grandparents came from Russia and Poland. My grandfather assimilated much more than my grandmother because he worked (she didn't). He didn't even have any accent, save a NY one. My mother and her siblings were actually more vocal about their heritage than their parents. Same with my paternal grandmother, whose parents were from Poland. And, while they kept their language and some of their culture (we still have kruschiki every Christmas, etc), they were completely Americanized. And I think that's where the uneasiness comes from-the seemingly total disregard for any attempt to do so now.