Italian Migrations Internal, International Emigration and Immigration

Wars the migration flow decreased drastically and was mainly a consequence of political

opposition to fascism. This decreasing was however due to the legislative restrictions imposed

by many receiving countries, such as the introduction of immigrant quotas or the American

‘literacy tests’. After the WW II the Italians became again protagonists of substantial emigration

flows. Newer destinations were in the meanwhile chosen by the emigrants, particularly

Germany and Switzerland in Europe or Latin America outside the continent.

According to Castles and Miller precisely, the 1850-1914 period was marked by

transatlantic migrations, while after 1945 these movements steady expanded involving all

regions of the world (Castles & Miller, 2009, p. 2). The Italian case also followed this path.

Summing up, in one century, the Italian emigrants were approximately 24.000.000 , a figure

1

that makes the Italian migratory exodus the largest one of the modern and contemporary

history so far.

1 ISTAT data post-processing. In Rosoli, G. (1978). Un secolo di emigrazione italiana 1876-1976. Roma: Cser.

Italian Migrations 5

3. Internal emigration

The phenomenon of internal migration flows deserves a particular attention because of

its peculiarity and its similarities with the current immigration trends.

According to Paul Ginsborg, the Italian’s economic miracle since the late 40’s meant

more than just an increase of the economic development or an improvement of the quality of

life. It also represented the occasion for an unprecedented mixing of the Italian population. In

the period 1955-1971 around 140.000 people were involved in these inter-regional

movements (Ginsborg, 1989, p. 295). They left their places of origin, the countries were their

families had used to live for generations. They abandoned the immutable world of the rural

Italy, moving to the dynamic cites of industrialized Italy.

The direction of the flows was mainly from south to north but also from north-east to

north west. While the number of farm labourer decreased on average up to 20% (Ginsborg,

1989, p. 296) among Italian countryside, the population increased drastically in Torino, Milano

and Rome and in their hinterlands. As late as 1976, Turin’s mayor Diego Novelli noted that his

city was ‘the third largest city of southern Italy after Napoli and Palermo’ (our translation)

because of the wide amount of labour emigrants coming from there.

The industrial boom and the consequent hope for a better life was thus the cause of

these internal migrations. The economic development was also the source for the building and

the implementation of the infrastructures which enabled the people to move among Italian

regions. A circumstance which is well explained in general and global terms by Castles and

Miller (Castles & Miller, 2009, p. 5).

4. Recent developments and changes

Major waves of immigrants arrived in Italy only in the 80’s, and in relatively low

numbers. However, these numbers steady increased since that period transforming Italy from

an emigrant sending to an immigrant receiving society (Hellman, 1997).

It is useful to clarify here and now that the number of Italians abroad is still high -

4.500.000 people, while the natives are about 58.500.000 (Zepponi, 2009)- and that still exist

Italian Migrations 6

migration flows from Italy to other countries, above all to European countries (Pugliese, 2002,

p. 1). The motivations that drive these people to move from Italy are quite different from those

which convinced their countrymen ancestors to do the same and surely their decisions are not

dictated by hunger and poverty. As pointed out by Castles and Miller ‘migration is not just a

reaction to difficult conditions at home: it is also motivated by the search for better

opportunities and lifestyles elsewhere. It is not just the poor who move: movements between

rich countries are increasing too’ (Castles & Miller, 2009, p. 5).

The cornerstone is that, as again the two authors stress in The Age of Migrations, ‘the old

dichotomy between migrant-sending and migrant-receiving states is being eroded. Most

countries experience both emigration and immigration (although one or the other often

predominates) while some countries have taken on an important role as transit zones for

migrants’.

5. Immigration

Nowadays Italy has become a crucial transit zone for migrants who want to access the

EU. Moreover the immigration predominates on emigration. Already in 1973 Italy had for the

first time a very light positive net migration rate (101 immigrants each 100 emigrants ).

2

In her article ‘Immigrant Space in Italy: When an Emigrant Sending Becomes an

Immigrant Receiving Society’, Judith Adler Hellman examines the responses to the new flows of

immigrants to Italy from outside the EU. She closely analyzes the political and social impact of

immigration within the Italian society, a former emigrant sending country. Going more in

depth the author then compares the Italian immigration with other EU countries and with

classic ‘societies of immigration’, specifically studying the role played by political parties and

other institutions as regards this experience.

2 Source: ISTAT. http://demo.istat.it/

Italian Migrations 7

Expressing concerns about the Italian reluctant acceptance of being an ‘immigration

society’ , Hellman wonders about how long it will take to Italian governments to make the

3

cultural, economic and legal adjustment that correspond to this reality. Actually Hellman’s

article is outdated to the extent that now the acceptance of Italy as an immigration country is

not questioned. Thereby the regulations that the author was hoping for also came.

Anyway I would like to stress the point that such a change wasn’t due to the readiness of

the political class but to the social and demographic obviousness (the latest statistics show that

there are in Italy 4.500.000 foreigners, thus corresponding to the 7,5% of the whole

population) . Besides that, it has to be remarked as well that the current regulation (legge 30

4

Luglio 2002, n. 189 – a.k.a. Bossi-Fini law) is rather controversial as it concerns international

law obligations. Some doubts related to alleged violations of human rights were furthermore

raised (Amnesty International, 2007) notwithstanding a positive adjudgement of the Italian

Constitutional Court .

5

6. Comparative aspects

Analyzing comparatively the three topic cases of migration concerning Italy, i.e.

international/internal emigration and immigration, one discovers many peculiar similarities or

differences among this migration process. The language is the first tangible difficulty

encountered from many emigrants, including the southern Italian who moved to the north and

often weren’t able to speak Italian but only dialects (Ginsborg, 1989, p. 307). Furthermore it

has to be outlined that because of Italy’s negligible colonial experiences there are very few

immigrants which can speak Italian as soon arrived (Hellman, 1997, pp. 35-36).

Many common aspects can be further seen in the Italian historically chronic delay of

effective political responses towards immigration and emigration. I decided to consider three

3 Cf. also Castles, S., & Miller, M.J. (2009). The Age of Migration. International Population Movements in the Modern World.

Basingstoke/New York: Palgrave Macmillan., p.14.

4 Source: ISTAT. http://demo.istat.it/

5 Cf. Sentenza della Corte Costituzionale n. 22 del 22 gennaio 2007

Italian Migrations 8

specific aspects, i.e. employment, racism and exploitation, taking into account the issues

featured in the articles of Hellman, Ginsborg and Pugliese.

Employment

During the years of the economic miracle the demand of labour forces was higher than

the supply (Ginsborg, 1989, p. 301). This was the main cause for the internal emigration and

for the exponential increase of employees in the industries and in the tertiary sector.

Nowadays the situation is completely different, considering that Italy has an unemployment

rate of 9% which reaches the peak of 30% if we look at the youth unemployment rate.

Analyzing the differences between Italy and traditional ‘societies of immigration’ (i.e.

United States, Canada, Australia, Argentina) Hellman outlines ‘the absence [in Italy] of the

classic niches generally occupied by newcomers in immigrant societies’ (Hellman, 1997, p.

6

44). According to the author, the hyper-regulation of the Italian society sets limits and

restrictions to those immigrants who would like to pursue autonomous economic initiatives.

Unable to pursue the traditional paths of immigrant advancement, immigrants come to be seen

as a problem rather than a resource. As a result they tend to be viewed as ‘poor devils’, charity

cases without inventive and energetic resources. While for the immigrants nothing (or very

little) is defined in accordance with their particular abilities, the both skilled and unskilled

Italian emigrants to the United States were protagonist in the building of railways and

infrastructures in the end of the 19 century.

th

Racism & exploitation

Usually in Italy (as everywhere else), the jobs open to immigrants are those which the

local citizens do not wish to hold. Nevertheless the rhetoric of ‘they rob us of the work’ is

everything but alien to Italy. Even if Hellman admits that the Italian extremist right parties,

thus the traditional xenophobic and racist, are more moderate than some definitely hostile

parties in other EU countries, the exploitation of anti-immigration issues is yet used in order to

raise political consensus. She then highlights how ‘by preventing immigrant flows from

undermining the position of Italian workers or undercutting their wages, the [trade] unions

6 Ethnic business niches: self-employment of immigrants in small business like ethnic restaurants or distributive trade of goods and

services usually towards the own community.

Italian Migrations 9

have generally been effective in countering racism or exclusionary sentiment on the part of the

working class’ (Hellman, 1997, p. 43).

A similar achievement can be observed is it regarded the internal emigration. The

companies paid the southern Italian emigrants one third than their local colleagues (Ginsborg,

1989, p. 302). Apart the economic advantage deriving from such a situation, the companies

used this strategy as a mean for dividing the working class. The local workers indeed saw their

bargaining power threatened because of the ‘terroni’ . Also in this case the efforts of the trade

7

unions were effective for defusing the tensions (Ginsborg, 1989, p. 302).

The story of distrust of the foreigner in general is unfortunately quite long. Just to cite

some examples related to the Italian experience, one can refer to the marginalization episodes

that the Italian transoceanic emigrants suffered from. Moving to the internal emigrants, many

scholars symbolically writ