Descendants of early Kansas immigrants have generally retained little in the way of dress, customs, and language that once set them apart. The common conclusion, therefore, is that they abandoned their immigrant past as they came to resemble Americans. Although many distinguishing characteristics have in fact been discarded, there is convincing evidence that less visible immigrant influences have survived and are still decisive. Religion, comportment, and sense of family are examples of ethnic roots that have been shown to persist even among groups that are widely regarded as assimilated. Immigrant history is still a key to American diversity, although reasons behind that diversity are less conspicuous than formerly.
Immigrant history can reveal an unexpected amount about individual, family, and group chemistry.
Immigrants, however, didn't live in a civic and social vacuum, and examination of their history is necessary to explain society from the neighborhood to the nation-state, particularly American society that is comprised exclusively of immigrants and their progeny. Few Kansas communities can claim that immigration was an insignificant part of their history. The role of immigration in towns like Lindsborg is obvious even today, but it was just as influential, if not as transparent in many other locations. Just as immigrant history can be important in many assignments that entail self-evaluation and study of societal units, it can also be used to illustrate the model of community and explain its composition and dynamics. Few subjects lend themselves as well as immigrant history to an examination of the principles of American democracy like tolerance and equality, the realities of society like pluralism, and the ideals and practices of citizenship.