Because, deep down, (white) Americans know that it sucks to be "just American". They see people of color or people with a legitimate European community and are jealous and upset or sad that they don't have that. My distant family is Italian. Great grandma (or something) didn't teach grandma about it, so it was lost, and now we have no connection other then vague stories. My dad's boomer brained, but even he seems a little sad he doesn't know any distant cousins in Italy or something. Vs a nice lady I met recently who goes back to Albania occasionally and has a good time and reconnects with distant family and seems much more well adjusted.