Germans board a ship for the United States. (Library of Congress)

Those who oppose modern immigration often point to their own ancestors, who came from Europe in the 19th or early 20th century, as examples of immigration done right. Those immigrants came here legally, they say. They wanted to become Americans, and they learned English and assimilated.

Never mind that the concept of legal vs. illegal immigration is a fairly recent one, did past generations of immigrants really assimilate faster? Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison looked at historical records of German immigrants in the 19th century. They found that German remained the immigrants’ primary language for decades after they arrived, in some cases for multiple generations. By the 1910 census, there were still communities where 20 percent of residents spoke only German at home.

Highlights from the study:

• A 1932 paper on 19th century immigration to northern Milwaukee stated that “English was not even necessary for their day-to-day interactions. Every person they came in contact with could speak German at least as well as English. In Ozaukee County, there is evidence that the Irish families who lived scattered among the Germans could speak German.”
• The researchers found correspondence in the 1890s from school districts to the office of the state school superintendent that were written entirely in German. This is after the Bennett law of 1889 that required schools to be taught in English.
• They also found records in a UW-Madison dissertation about Lebanon, Wis., from a Lutheran church in the community that was “introducing one sermon each month in English, on a trial basis.” That decision was made in 1929.

Why do Wisconsin residents of German descent speak English today? Most likely it was the anti-German sentiments that swept the country during World War I. At that time, German was banned from public schools and many Americans of German origin changed their names and rejected their heritage. Today, most Americans probably wouldn’t guess that Germany was the most common country of origin for immigrants to the United States. (See this timeline of immigration history for more about past waves of immigrants.)