New Arrivals
The first Italians come to the United States in the late 1800s. This first arrival were explores, soldiers, sailors, missionaries, and adventures who helped who helped the Spanish, French, English, and Portuguese exploration and settlement of North America. Between 1820 and 1873, 12000 Italians arrived in the United States. These arrivals, most of whom intended to settle permanently, were generally from Northern. Many of them were educated skilled workers, like teachers, musicians, sculptors, and other craftsmen. They move to America to get freedom in political and religion. By the end of this period, Italian cold be found in every state of the Union, the largest number residing in California, New York, and Louisiana. The composition of Italian Immigrants began to change between 1860 and 1880. Although most still came from the North, more also began to arrive from Southern Italy. Many of these arrivals were peasants and farm laborers who intended to remain only a few months or years before returning to Italy.
The Great Migration
After 1880, the trickle of Italian immigrants turned into a flood. Between 1880 and 1914, more than 3 millions Italians officially entered the United States. The overwhelming majority of them (72,3 %) coming from the South. The factors that compelled Italians to leave their homeland are the condition of the land (the infertility land and primitive agricultural methods) and poor economic conditions in Italy during this period, particularly in the southern regions. These problem increased after 1880, when Italian agriculture exports were curtailed by tariff and its crops and people decimated by epidemic. These push factors were combined with the expansion of America industry, which wanted cheap, unskilled labor. The Italian government also saw the advantages of emigration, since it provided a social safety valve the relieved economic pressure on the country by reducing the population most likely to push for social. Moreover, the financially government became increasingly aware the immigrants remittances provided it with badly needed capital, which became important for the economy.
For Italians, the period of mass migration, which saw the arrival of more than 3 million Italians between 1880 and 1914, ended with World War I. These immigrants found work on ranches, mines, fishing, manufacturing, and industry, and most of this work requiring unskilled labor and long hours. In the first of the 1900s, of the approximately 2,3 million Italians who came to the United States, three-quarters went to the heavily urbanized states of New York (993.113), Pennsylvania (429.200), Massachusetts 9154.882), and New Jersey (118.680).
World War I and Immigration Restriction
World War I dramatically changed migration patterns and also the attitude of many Italian immigrants residing in the United States. The dangers of travel across the Atlantic, coupled with the need for military manpower in Europe served to severely restrict emigration, which once again fell to a trickle. All immigration to the United States declined during this period, and Italians was no exception, decreasing from 283.738 arrivals in 1914 to 5.250 in 1918. This war was a critical event that also forced Italian immigrants to consider permanently staying in the United States. Many of them faced the U.S draft and an estimated 300.000 Italians Americans served in the U.S Army.
Italy emerged from the war poor with some problems: unemployment was high, mass unrest, strikes, violence spread, prompting more Italians to look once again to emigration as a way out of their predicament. Almost half a million Italians arrived in the United States in the five years following the end of the war (1919-1924). But, in this time the immigrations to the United States is not easy as before. In the grips of racism, antiradicalism, and religion bias, the United States passed legislation in 1917, 1921, and finally in 1924 named Immigrant Act that restricting the new immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europeans. Under this act, a maximum yearly quota of 150.000 immigrants (from outside the America) were to be admitted to the U.S, with Italian eligible for 3845 of these slots. In 1925, after the Immigrant Act was passed, a total of 6203 Italian immigrant arrived. Many Italian immigrants now opted to become permanent settlers and the number of Italian women and family groups increased.
Work and Community
In the United States, Italians settled in and dominated specific neighborhoods (often called "Little Italy"), where they could interact with one another, establish a familiar cultural presence, and find favorite foods. Many Italian immigrants arrived with little cash since most had been peasant farmers in Italy, they lacked craft skills and, therefore, generally performed manual labor. Civic and social life flourished in Italian-American neighborhoods, with many people belonging to hometown societies to the same American neighborhood meant that even new immigrants had extensive social networks which helped in the adjustment at America. In such cities as New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco they create what become known as urban villages. Many Italians arrived in the United States hoping to earn enough money to return home and set themselves up in a business or with a farm. Among immigrant groups to America, Italians had the highest rate of returning to the old country.
Mulberry Street, along which New York’s Little Italy is centered. Lower East Side, circa 1900.
Wihin these communities, Italian immigrant developed a series of organizations and institutions that provided them with cultural, physical, and financial support. Mutual aid societies provided the immigrant with a form of insurance in case of sickness and death. Banks were established, which, while often charging high interest, became a source of community development since they were the only agencies that lent money to Italians. Larger communities for example in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, had thriving theater groups that performed both serious play. They found work as miners in the Iron Range of Minnesota; in the coalfields of Ohio, Utah, and Wyoming; in the lumber mills of Washington and California; and in the copper mines of Colorado and Arizona. Others worked as barbers, shoemakers, and shopkeepers and women often took in wash and cooked for boarders in order to support their families.
Facing Discrimination
Americans have always had ambivalent feelings toward immigrants. Many Americans doubted that Southern Italians were white, and they were viewed as having dangerous criminal tendencies and believed to be prone to crimes of passion and vengeance. Italians were criticized for the color of their skin, for being too friendly to blacks, and for being “dirty, lazy, ignorant, and prone to violence.” In the twenty-year period starting with the lynching of eleven defenseless Italians in New Orleans in 1890, more than twenty Italian immigrants were lynched in the South. Still, it was the basic assumption of the teacher that Italian immigrant children were a problem element. The children (mostly boys, who were allowed more freedom than their sister) spent more time with their group in the street, forming the gangs so well. These sons only saw the possibility of advancement through rackets and petty crime. So, there’s no doubt that some Italians did gain notoriety in crime.
Labor Activism and Political Involvement
The Italian American activism was concentrated in the economic sector. For Italian Americans the interwar period was fraught with contradictions. Especially the grandchildren of the first arrivals, felt assimilated and accepted, whereas more recent arrivals, felt the sting of discrimination and prejudice. They began working in the automobile plants of Detroits and the steel mills of Pittsburgh and other industries, where wages increased with the cost of living. Others still working in menial tasks and working for very low wages. These conditions made to labor activism and strikes and made Italian radicals became the target of imprisonment and deportation.
In early 1897 the coal strikers in the bituminous fields were happened. As the conflict between labor and capital increased in the United States, there were many attracted to socialist and anarchist movements. Chief among them was the 1912 strike in the Lawrence, Massachusetss, mills to protest the company’s pay cut. This was followed by Patterson, New Jersey strike of 1913 which closed down the town’s 300 mills. The others movement were also happened in the coal fields of Virginia and Ohio to the garment industry of Chicago and New York, the factory and construction sites of the Atlantic seaboard, etc. During this period, many Italians deported as “alien radicals”
reference: A Nation of Book Peoples edited by Elliot Robert B
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