Fecund Newcomers or Dying Ethnics? Demographic Approaches to the History of Polish and Italian Immigrants and Their Children in the United States, 1880 to 1980

JOHN RADZILOWSKI

INTRODUCTION

THE MASSIVE WAVE OF immigration to the United States from eastcentral and southern Europe between 1880 and 1924 remains one of the most significant migration events in American history. The size of this migration was well understood even by contemporaries. However, interest in immigrant demography after the initial act of immigration has been infrequent, if not wholly lacking. This has limited our understanding of the communities formed out of this migration and their impact on U.S. history.