Italian Migration Research Articles

Nostos, Nostalgia and Italian Migration

The Italian immigrant experience in North America is discussed in relation to the concepts of nostos and nostalgia. The first term, normally referring to the return home from a sea voyage, is discussed comparing the foundational account of nostos, the Odyssey, with the early sojourn phase of Italian migration. By comparison, nostalgia, which can take the form either of homesickness or a longing for the past, is found in the permanent settlement phase, wherein the sense of homesickness predominates pre-World War II while that of longing for the past best defines the post-war period.

Italian emigration and Italian Language in Costa Rica

In the following article, I present a summary of several aspects of the Italian migration in Costa Rica. First, the typology of Italian migrants, second, a brief description of the language they spoke, third, the diglossic position of languages in their repertoire, fourth, the Italians in Costa Rica, their location of origin in Italy, fifth, their original languages, finally the influence of Spanish and some conclusions found in Franceschi.

The Backward Stock of the South: The Metaphoric Structuring of Italian Racial Difference in 1920s Australia

ABSTRACT This paper examines the use of metaphors to construct Italian migration within the 1920s Australian press. Using a critical discourse analysis approach, the paper investigates the range of metaphors used to frame Italian migration, which were also applied to Asian migration in earlier decades. It finds that such metaphors were a racially coded means for constructing immigrant deviance and threat. It further finds that this threat construction was the means by which immigration restrictions were legitimised and the need to preserve White Australia reiterated. While there was some ambivalence as to the extent of danger posed by Italian immigration, the use of such metaphors to frame discussion illustrates the extent to which debates around Italian immigration were, at heart, anchored in ideas of race.

The Italian Diaspora in South Africa: Origins and Identity

ABSTRACT This article reviews the history and legacy of Italian migration to South Africa since the seventeenth century, covering the colonial period under Dutch and British rule, the apartheid years (1948 to 1994), including the period after World War II, as well as developments in the Italian presence in the context of the post-1994 democratic dispensation. Unusual aspects of the roles of gender and religion are considered. Although several studies have explored Italian communities’ experiences elsewhere in the world, little academic research has been conducted on the psycho-social experiences of the Italian community in South Africa. To address this lacuna, this article lays the foundations for a larger research project that was conducted on the experiences of second- and third-generation Italians in South Africa. It also identifies and stresses the need for further research into this part of the Italian diaspora in the context of the larger field of Italian studies.

From slash and burn to winemaking: the historical trajectory of Italiancolonosin the uplands of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

This contribution discusses the early years of Italian immigration in the uplands of southern Brazil, known as the Serra Gaucha (1875–1915). Tracing back early agrarian practices and deforestation techniques of the early settlement years, we investigate the consolidation of this human group in the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. In addition, analysing the development of both wood logging and winemaking industries in the region, the essay frames the identitarian construction of this social group, looking at the intersection between cultural traditions from the homeland, socioeconomic drives and local environmental factors. This analysis builds upon primary sources from both Brazilian and Italian institutions, local newspapers, and scholarly publications on environmental history, as well as Brazilian and Italian migration history.

Environments ofItalianness: for an environmental history of Italian migrations

Italian mobility played a fundamental part in the history of the peninsula, since it was a global phenomenon reaching every continent except Antarctica. The Italian diaspora counted over 26 million expatriates who left the country between 1876 and 1976 and, to date, Italy remains one of the states that has contributed the most to the Great European Migration. Although impressive, these figures do not take into account pre-unitary Italian mobilities or Italian settlements in colonial territories. By adopting the perspective of environmental history of migration, this collection of essays allows us to consider various contextually embedded migratory environments, creating a means to find common constitutive features that allow us to explore and identifyItalianness. Specifically, in this special issue, we intend to investigate how Italians transformed remote foreign environments in resemblances of their distant faraway homeland, theirpaesi, as well as used them as a means of materially re-imagining landscapes ofItalianness. In return, their collective and individual identities were transformed by the new surroundings.

American Studies in Italy / Études américaines en Italie / Estudios Americanos en Italia

Since the 19th century, American studies in Italy have focused mainly on the political history of the US. This is a direct consequence of the European echo of the “American Revolution” and of the “great” Italian migration to North America at the end of the century. Consequently, during the following century, attention to Latin America was unstable and erratic and was circumscribed to the study of particular flows of Italian migration across the Atlantic, for example the “fascist” migration, o...

From street musicians to divas. Italian musical migration to London in the age of diaspora

ABSTRACT The history of Italian musical migration to London is rich and complex. From the beginning of the eighteenth century Italian musicians played a major role in Georgian society. During the Victorian era, despite a relative lack of scholarly research, new generations of Italian musicians moved to London, acquiring a recognized social status. Nevertheless, musicians and divas involved in London operatic market constituted just a small minority of the whole Italian community. Many Italians that came to the British Isles from the mid-nineteenth century were economic migrants, who in numerous cases made a living as street musicians. This introductory article, based on an archival research carried out mainly at the Royal College of Music and at the British Library, provides a brief social and cultural overview of Italian musical migration to London in the long nineteenth century. It also isolates cross-disciplinary questions that place in context the individual articles within this special issue. The latter is edited by Nicolò Palazzetti, Andrew Holden and Massimo Zicari.

Vocal pedagogy and Italian musical migration in London, 1664–1914

ABSTRACT The new Italian vocal style that arrived in Britain at the end of the seventeenth century with teachers such as Pietro Reggio and Pier Francesco Tosi – and which soon became regarded as the epitome of vocal expertise – was the sound of italianità as much as it was a pragmatic mode of vocal production. My intention in this article is to trace emerging patterns of Italian singing teachers who settled (sometimes only briefly) in Britain, and explore their impact and influence on ideas of singing. Beyond Reggio and Tosi, particular attention will be given to later prominent Italian musicians resident in London (Domenico Corri, Gesualdo Lanza and Giacomo Gotifredo Ferrari in the early 1800s; Alberto Randegger and Paolo Tosti in the early 1900s) and the degree to which they challenged or accommodated British vocal culture within their teaching of Italian style and technique.

Migration trauma and psychiatry in the early twentieth century

ABSTRACT The article analyses, through the use of primary sources, the relationship between emigration and madness during the Italian transatlantic migration at the beginning of the twentieth century. During that years, mental illness started to spread among returning emigrants, while the countries of destination showed their disfavour towards new emigration, especially the one coming from the South of Italy. At that time, most of the Italian psychiatric community was influenced by the positivist and Lombrosian approach which considered mental alienation as an organic disease widespread among southern populations. The southern emigrant has been transformed into a person subjected to madness and the act of emigrating has been conceived as a symptom instead of a necessity. Lastly, the research focuses on ‘abandonment issues’ suffered by emigrants’ wives. These psychic pathologies, neglected by the psychiatry at that time, would have represented an opportunity for a better understanding of the migration trauma.

‘Assisted’ Migration and the Marshall Plan: the Italian Case

Abstract Italy, as a country of arrival for many migrants from outside the European Union, is currently receiving much international media attention because of the ongoing so-called ‘migration crisis’. Historically, however, Italy has been a country of outward migration. This article analyses the history of Italian migration during the post-Second World War years. This crucial period in Italian history was characterised by economic reconstruction and recovery led by international institutions and the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan’s provisions on migration have received little scholarly attention, and this neglect is particularly pronounced in the case of Italy. This historical research draws mainly from documents retrieved from the Marshall Plan’s collections at the archives of the Bank of Italy, originally produced in the aftermath of the Second World War. The article is divided into four parts. The first section outlines the problem and embeds it within the existing literature on the history of migration policy in Italy. The second part examines the induced aid and migration policies of post-war Italy. The third part considers the architecture of the migration policy of that time, e.g. funding allocations and requests submitted to the United States for destination countries, such as Canada, or continents such as Latin America and Africa. Finally, the last section provides more in-depth analysis of the erp itself and its impact on Italian out-migration. The article concludes that cooperating and joint programming is a necessity for states in the management of migration.

European Union and Italian Migration Policy and the Probable Destabilization of Southern Libya and Northern Niger

ABSTRACT European Union and Italian policies, while achieving their objectives of suppressing migration across the Mediterranean Sea, have at the same time created social and economic dislocation in southern Libya and northern Niger that will further destabilize the region. Using field research involving interviews and surveys, the authors document these dislocations, predict instability, and suggest future research.

4 Migration research and analysis: Growth, reach and recent contributions

4 Migration research and analysis: Growth, reach and recent contributions

Italian migration policy and politics: Exacerbating paradoxes

ABSTRACTKey political and legislative developments related to immigration in Italy in 2019 were crystallized, represented and powerfully mediated in public debate by the Sea-Watch incident, which was emblematic not only of the politicization of immigration in Italy but also of underlying paradoxes. One paradox is that migration flows to Italy across the Mediterranean attracted huge political and media attention despite being much smaller than migration for family or employment reasons. Another is that Italians’ attitudes to immigration have generally become more favourable, although issue salience has been persistently high with important political effects. The third is that, while ostensibly driven by the intention of reducing undocumented migration, Matteo Salvini’s actions as Interior Minister may lead to its increase and feed the problems his actions are supposed to address. While paradoxes of these types are evident in other destination countries, the commitment and political will to resolve them has further diminished in Italy in 2019.

Emplaced and embodied encounters: methodological reflections on transcultural research in contexts of Italian migration

This article explores the practical, ethical, and epistemological issues which arise when carrying out and sharing research in contexts of Italian migration, highlighting how greater reflexivity on our own geographic and historical location as researchers can productively inform and shape our understanding of sites of contact, exchange and confrontation in relation to contemporary Italy. Specifically, we write as researchers informed by ethnographic theories and practices, and who through our research have engaged in emplaced and embodied cultural encounters in sites which are identifiable as both transcultural and Italian. Drawing on vignettes from research in Italy and the UK, the article highlights some of the particular contradictions, opportunities and responsibilities generated by our respective positions. We address how our positionings as white, English and female scholars located within nationally-defined Italian Studies structures have raised pertinent questions of power, privilege and voice, as we place our own biographies and bodies, themselves shaped by specific colonial, national and local histories, into critical dialogue with those on and with whom we research. Through a discussion of these ‘irresolvable tensions’ of our research, we seek to practically engage with the broader imperative of finding new ways of studying and writing culture.

Silencing history: forgetting Italy’s past during the refugee crisis in Europe

Most scholarly analyses of memory politics investigate how historical events are remembered selectively in order to justify political choices. Recent research has shown that ‘silencing the past’, notably the omission of relevant historical events, is also an important aspect of memory politics. This article examines how Italian leaders silenced significant periods of Italy’s history during the refugee and migrant crisis in 2014–2018. Drawing on memory politics and postcolonial literature, the article argues that Italian foreign policy discourses are based on both historical oblivion and the long-standing myth of the ‘good Italian’. The myth negates the controversial aspects of Italy’s colonial experience and permeates the country’s self-perception as an international actor. Italian foreign policy narratives also silenced the highly relevant precedent of Italian migration abroad. The focus is on the public speeches of Italy’s main political actors, notably national ministers and the leaders of the largest parties in parliament.

Migration Crisis, Organised Crime and Domestic Politics in Italy: Unfolding the Interplay

ABSTRACT Focusing on Italy in the years of the ‘migration crisis’ between 2013 and 2017, this article explores how migration, crime groups and the domestic politics of migration control became entangled in times of crisis. Departing from previous theoretical discussions, it builds a framework that combines crime groups’ actions with domestic political processes in host countries and explores how the crime-migration nexus shaped – and was shaped by – Italian migration policymaking. The article contends that in the context of crisis the nexus took on new forms and that Italian migration politics and policies served to foster rather than counter the phenomenon, in a continuous interplay between criminal practices and policy choices.

A Tribute to Louise DeSalvo (1942–2018)

A Tribute to Louise DeSalvo (1942–2018)

АЛБАНСЬКА ІММІГРАЦІЯ В ІТАЛІЮ В 1990-Х РОКАХ

The article examines the problem of Albanian immigration to Italy in the 1990's. The unstable situation in Albania in the 1990's and its proximity to Italy prompted large numbers of Albanians to cross the sea border and eventually reach the geographically closest region of Puglia. The article analyzes the government's actions in three areas: humanitarian support and accommodation of newcomers, legal registration, as well as cooperation with the country where the immigrants came from. Analyzing the two biggest crises in 1991 and 1997 the author tries to compare common and different features and mechanisms of interaction to solve this problem. In both cases, Italy was unable to provide adequate humanitarian support to thousands of migrants; on the other hand, the approach to legalization has changed. If during the first wave it was possible to obtain a long-term residence permit, then during the second wave the period of legal stay in Italy was limited to a few months. As of 1997, the Italian border service has changed its strategy and prevented boats with migrants from entering its own territory by all means. Also, during the second wave, the issue of resolving the crisis is brought to the international level, Italy is trying to transfer sole responsibility from itself to UN institutions. If in 1991 the Italian government tried to negotiate with the authorities of Albania, in 1997 all the problems were already submitted to the UN Security Council. In addition, public opinion and a positive attitude towards Albanians has been evolving and becoming extremely negative. The researcher concludes that the Albanian migration crisis was the first challenge for the Italian migration system, when the country had to guard its borders actively, cooperate with thousands of refugees on its territory and establish contact with the country of origin of migrants. A study of the Italian government's strategy, as well as the reaction of society and the press, is crucial for understanding the immigration system, which has been built on this experience and formed Italian policy on this subject in the future.

New Italian Migrations to the United States, Vol. 2: Art and Culture since 1945

New Italian Migrations to the United States, Vol. 2: Art and Culture since 1945