Gli emigranti italiani in Francia durante il fascismo e il ruolo dei missionari cattolici

Abstract

During the 1920s and 1930s, Italian missionaries in France faced the increasingly pervasive presence of the fascist regime in the country’s Italian communities. Despite some disagreements with the Italian consulates, the priests shared with Fascism the defense of the migrants’ Italianness, thus attracting toward them the hostility of anti-fascists and French authorities. The Italian missions and the fascist regime, particularly during the 1930s, built a real alliance which guaranteed both sides to maintain their autonomy and found its raison d'être in the defense of the emigrants from the dangers of Frenchization and secularization.