221; This was significant because even the “party of the immigrants”, the Democrats, were against the Chinese. Also, most Chinese, unlike most Europeans, wanted to go to the US, earn money and then go back to China. The American public resented the Chinese and labeled them as a second-class race. As a result of all this prejudice, the Chinese were largely banned from immigrating. As Robert Ingersoll said, the Chinese were not allowed to follow the national progression that benefitted earlier immigrants. Immigrants hoped that by coming to America, they could still retain their culture which they were unable to do in large part due to the education system. Immigrants hoped that they could both move up socially to the same level as the Americans as well as keep their identity intact. When they first arrived, immigrants kept their cultural identity intact by creating ethnic neighborhoods such as Little Frances or Little Italies. These were places for people of one ethnic group, or even one town or one province, to retain their cultural values. These were very prominent, with 17 little Italies in Chicago alone. It was essential for these immigrants to have these places to attempt to avoid assimilation. As Italian immigrant Verduccio Marsongeri put it, “I need my little Italy because the old country is still so important to me.” In this way, the free education given in the US to most children, American or immigrant, was a mixed blessing. While it certainly prepared immigrant children for better jobs due to better education than their parents had had, education also resulted in a loss of cultural identity. Those children who were educated in the US were instilled with American and not old country values as well as English as the primary language. This was in fact an intended consequence of the education expansion, that the immigrant children be assimilated into American culture so as to eliminate the fore...
