Italian Immigration

When we hear about immigration we think of people from other countries coming to join ours and nothing more. But what happens after they arrive, what is the rest of their story? Immigration from Italy started in the 1800s. Many Italian immigrants faced prejudice when immigrating to the United States. Jobs couldn't be found and names were called. The main purpose for migration to America was poverty, but political hardship and the dream to return to Italy with enough money to buy land were motivators as well. Italians had immigrated to either Argentina or Brazil as well however, for various reasons many of them ended up staying in America. Despite the mass migration from 1876 to 1976 Italians still only made 1.5% of the population. From 1900 to 1910 over 2,100,00 arrived. Of these, around 40 per cent eventually returned to Italy. An investigation carried out in 1978 revealed that since 1820 over 5,294,000 people immigrated to the United States from Italy. This amounted to 10.9 per cent of the total foreign immigration during this period.

Interview:

It doesn't end there, below is a video of a John Cerimele, who talks about his story and continues to live it. 

 

For more information on immigrating from Italy, see:

"99.03.06: The Italian Immigrant Experience in America (1870-1920)." 99.03.06: The Italian Immigrant Experience in America (1870-1920). 14 Mar. 2013 <http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1999/3/99.03.06.x.html>.

"Countries and Their Cultures." Italian Americans. 14 Mar. 2013 <http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Ha-La/Italian-Americans.html>.

McMillan, Peter. "Italian Immigration." Spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk. Spartacus Educational Publishers Ltd. 14 Mar. 2013 <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAEitaly.htm#mainbody>.

Molnar, Alexandra. "History of Italian Immigration." Mtholyoke.edu. 15 Dec. 2010. 13 Feb. 2013 <https://www.mtholyoke.edu/~molna22a/classweb/politics/Italianhistory.html>.

"ThinkQuest : 404." ThinkQuest. Oracle Foundation. 14 Mar. 2013 <http://library.thinkquest.org/20619/Italian.html>.

Contributed by Obafemi Animashaun