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Atheism, how many German immigrants to the US came here and set up exclusively German-speaking communities?

As I've said, my family is from Milwaukee, a German-speaking American city if there ever was one. You can call Milwaukee an bit of anecdotal evidence, but I think the example it provides is FAR MORE ILLUSTRATIVE of the German-American experience than the unnamede community that your girlfriend's ancestors set up.

Were there German-speaking communities started across America? SURE! We can probably all find one in our part of the country; Anaheim, CA comes to mind, here in Southern California.

But to claim that such communities make up the rule, rather than the exception, to the German-American experience is not credible.

To claim that my family's anecdotes don't disprove the anecdote of your girlfriend's family does not make a convincing argument, either. I'd say FOUR anecdotes beats ONE anecdote, hands down!

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If you want DATA, as opposed to anecdotes, I would supply this study printed by the Manhattan Institute:

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_53.htm

which found:

" * Newly arrived immigrants of the early 21st century have assimilation index values lower than the newly arrived immigrants of the early 20th century. Growth in the immigrant population usually lowers the assimilation index because newly arrived immigrants drag down the average for the group as a whole. This phenomenon can be seen between 1900 and 1920 and again in the 1980s. The stability of the assimilation index since 1990 is therefore remarkable in light of the rapid growth of the immigrant population, which doubled between 1990 and 2006."

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