Migration often proved to be highly disruptive for immigrant families. The movement from one society to another was often accompanied by intense feelings of psychological dislocation, displacement, and marginality. Migration to a new environment often posed a threat to the immigrant's morality, faith, or traditions. Many immigrant children found that arrival in the United States inverted generational relationships, since the young often found it easier to learn a new language and to pick up new customs than do their parents.

Some immigrant homes had high levels of discord. Some husbands and fathers found it difficult to adjust to a society in which the autonomy of women and children was greater than they were accustomed to. But there were many sources of contention: language, clothing, and money. Language was one area of cultural confrontation. One immigrant child remembered her mother declaring: “This is a Yiddish house and no Gentile languages are going to be spoken here.” Jerre Mangione’s sister sometime spoke English in her sleep; her mother forgave her because “she could not be responsible for her unconscious thoughts.” Clothing, too, became a cultural battleground. Children pressed their immigrant parents to abandon their scarves, kerchiefs, and shawls and wear American clothing.