They do. Let me go a step further in that. So firm are they in that policy and so well do they imbue their emigrants with that policy that the statistics show that of all the people of Italian origin in the United States in 1920. only 26 per cent were naturalized Americans. Understand me. now. I am not singling out the Italian Government for attack. That action is typical of many foreign governments. and it is prompted by an intelligent selfishness from their point of view. and I offer no criticism of them. But I do say that it is in the highest degree unfair to tax America with the separation of families where the responsibility for that separation rests solely upon the emigrant himself and the country from which he emigrates. To say that we are separating those people from their weeping wives and children is a gross injustice to us. They separated themselves deliberately in accordance with their government policy that they should separate themselves. and they did so with their eyes wide open. knowing that we had a quota in effect that would in all likelihood bar the coming of the wives and children.
Identified stereotypes
People of Italian origin are not becoming naturalized Americans.