Kingdom of Italy - Emigration to America
The Risorgimento, Italy's national revival, culminated in the unification of the country in 1870. Despite the term "unification," a political and cultural divisiveness continued to exist between the industrial-prosperous North and the agrarian-poor South. The distinction between northerners and southerners found its way to the United States. Until restrictive legislation was passed in the early twenties, the Immigration Bureau issued separate statistics for each group. The mass migration consisted mainly of southern Italians and began in the late 1880s and early 1890s. From the middle of the nineteenth century and extending into the early twentieth century, Italy's population increased markedly. At the same time, an agricultural depression occurred; foreign markets for grapes and citrus fruits were lost to southern Italian farmers. Thousands were left destitute.
As a general rule, the southern provinces wrested from the central government every kind of service and benefit; whilst the northern provinces, on the other hand, are often left to their own resources. The initiating spirit, varying from one province to another, was very strong in the north and in the greater part of Central Italy, but scarcely existed in the south, where government was supposed to provide everything, - street lighting, schools, hospitals, - and to construct roads and seaports. And why not? Did not the Roman Empire, in its time, provide the citizens with panem el circenses?
The South, Mezzogiorno, was the neglected portion of Italy. The lack of industry and the dependence upon agriculture confined the southern contadini to a harsh life. Further, an "agricultural backwardness" existed in the South. This backwardness, as defined by Leonard Covello, resulted from "climate, water scarcity, seismic phenomena, floods, deforestation, depleted soil fertility, lack of roads, archaic methods of cultivation, the latifondi ("large estates"), taxation, usury, bondage, and corrupt administration of civic affairs." The contadini, left poor and desperate, were attracted by emigration posters and agents and looked to new lands. These people, mostly from the Abruzzi, Calabria, and Sicily, in contrast to northerners, had never traveled beyond their village.
The primary forces motivating Italian migration at its height from 1880 to 1920 were overpopulation, agricultural depressions, and discontent among the contadini, the "peasants." The United States was in a position to receive the newcomers. Technological advances in the country, railroad expansion, and new demands for coal and ores created a need for unskilled labor. These conditions in Italy and the United States led to the emigration of millions of Italians to America. The great exodus of emigrants is one of the most striking features of Italy's modem history. The northern Italians had adapted themselves to seasonal migrations but had always returned to Italy. The early emigrants who left the country permanently were either casual wanderers or political refugees, mainly from the North.
Northern Italians wandered to European countries and to South America, mainly Argentina and Brazil, for seasonal work. However, from 1860 to 1870, Argentina was beset with political disturbances, a financial crisis, and war with Paraguay; consequently, southern Italians wanting to emigrate looked away from South America toward the United States.6 Another decisive factor in turning their attention to the United States was the "myth of America." The myth embodied fact, fable, romance, and imagination, and culminated in the Horatio Alger dream of "rags to riches." This myth of America has always been one of the principal incentives for emigration; and the myth, in turn, was perpetuated and modified by the experiences of the immigrants in their actual contact with the New World.
Italian emigration was particularly heavy at the close of the nineteenth century and in the first decade of the twentieth. In 1900 the number of emigrants was 353,000 and in 1911 it was 533,000. This exodus did not represent a total loss of population, for nearly half returned after earning money abroad. Thus, in 1911 some 219,000 returned, of whom 140,000 were from the United States. Nevertheless, it was officially stated in 1910 that Italy had lost to date about 5,558,000 citizens, who had permanently settled in foreign countries, mainly in the United States, Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil, and that peasants, chiefly from southern Italy, constituted 80 per cent of this loss.
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