<P> After World War I, the emphasis on Americanization programs was gradually shifted from emergency propaganda to a long - time educational program, when a study of conditions in the draft army made by the United States Surgeon General's office showed that 18% to 42% of the men in army camps were unable to read a newspaper or to write a letter home, and that in the Northern and Midwestern United States these illiterates were almost entirely foreign born . Indications were that barriers to any understanding of U.S. aims and interests were even more marked than this among the older men and the women in the foreign colonies of the U.S. Hundreds of Americanization agencies sprang up overnight . </P> <P> After the 1970s proponents of multiculturalism began attacking Americanization programs as coercive and not respectful of immigrant culture . A major debate today is on whether speaking English is an essential component of being American . </P> <P> The Irish were the most influential ethnic group regarding the initial waves of immigration to the United States and of Americanization . Newly arrived immigrants in American cities had a hard time avoiding the Irish . There was no way around the Irish for the newcomers, as the Irish were present in every aspect of American working - class society . Between 1840 and 1890, more than 3,000,000 Irish immigrants had entered the United States, and by 1900, about 5,000,000 of their first and second generations were settled in . There were more Irish living in the United States than in Ireland . Irish Americans played a major role in the newcomer's Americanization . In other words, identity in the United States emerged from dynamic relationships among ethnic groups, as well as from particular groups' own distinct history and traditions . </P> <P> The newer ethnic groups were not directly assimilated to the American cultural mainstream, but rather, there was a gradual process of acculturation, where newcomer immigrants acculturated to a new way of life, learning new skills and habits through their unique experiences . This form of Americanization was a process carried out partially through force and coercion, that occurred in settlement houses, night school classes, and corporate programs, where these working - class immigrants were pressed to learn WASP values . "A key to understanding the multi-ethnic American city is that most immigrants came to understand their new world less through such formal programs, than through informal contacts with the Irish and other experienced working - class Americans of diverse ethnic backgrounds in the streets, churches, and theaters ." </P>

Mexico became involved in the organization of the american states to brainly