Immigrants and WWI: From the "How WWI Changed America" Series

Between 1880 and 1910, 17 million immigrants came to the United States; by the time of World War I, nearly fifteen percent of the population was foreign born. While earlier immigrants largely originated from Northern Europe (Britain, Ireland and Germany), many of these new immigrants came from Eastern, Central and Southern Europe, introducing unfamiliar languages and cultures to American society.
When World War I broke out in 1914, there were some concerns over how America’s immigrant population would respond, as many had familial ties to countries involved in the conflict. These sentiments increased when the United States formally entered the war in April 1917. Native-born Americans often saw immigrants in a negative light, perceiving them as “hyphenated Americans” who spoke little English and retained old world values. This initially appeared to reflect reality, as newly inducted recruits and draftees struggled to understand orders and prejudice and suspicion between native-born Americans and immigrants resulted in violence. The U.S. military addressed such problems by reorganizing immigrants into units with others who spoke their language and providing classes in English and American history. On the home front, George Creel’s Committee on Public Information used an array of propaganda, especially posters, to ensure that “hyphenated Americans” became full-fledged Americans who stood behind the war effort, regardless of their home country’s stance in the war. This dual Americanization of the country’s immigration population contributed to the unified image Woodrow Wilson and his government sought to project to the Allies in Europe.
Despite American immigrants’ support for the war effort and service on the battlefield in France, the U.S. government enacted new restrictions on immigration, most notably the Immigration Act of 1924. Immigrant veterans remained proud of their service in World War I, however, and their wartime assimilation into American society helped pave the way for greater acceptance of a generation of new Americans.