Did Immigrants Have to Leave Behind Their Cultures? No one forced the immigrants to migrate to the New World in the nineteenth century, or any other time. Even in special cases where they were forced, they should have not fallen prey to the weight of American culture. If their cultural and familial bonds were strong then a move to America should not have broken them. Vecoli pointed out that the nuclear, as well as the extended, families of Italian peasants were the most important aspect of their lives. Thus when they moved to America in search of better religious, political, and economic conditions they should not have let their want for a better life become