What was a significant factor in helping European ethnic groups, including Irish and Italians, assimilate into the American middle class?

The GI Bill provided returning World War II veterans with benefits such as college tuition assistance, job training, and access to home loans. These opportunities helped many veterans and their families build wealth and enter the middle class, including people from Irish and Italian American communities. The 1950s economic boom helped broadly, but the GI Bill was a specific pathway that supported upward mobility.

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