] There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism.
] When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to
] naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I
] have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born
] abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all.
] This is just as true of the man who puts "native" before the
] hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or
] French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the
] spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the
] United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds
] any other allegiance. But if he is heartily and singly loyal
] to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just
] as good an American as any one else.

One might observe that if "French-American" or "Irish-American" was a common term for European immigrants in the early part of this century, then its interesting that such terms are not as common today. That such immigrant groups aren't really considered "separate" anymore.

It is possible that the use of such a nomenclature is a stage in a process from foreign group to a fully integrated group, and for obvious reasons this particular group has been slower then others to integrate. This would imply that would will see it melt away in time... But not until you forget how to tell the difference between people in that group and people in other groups, as you've forgotten how to identify Americans as "Irish" or "Italian" or "French," and were you DO notice such distinctions its a matter of curiousity only.

Theodore Roosevelt on Hyphen Americanism...