From 1861 onwards, around 30 million Italians emigrated to seek their luck abroad
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Between 1861 and 1985, almost 30 million emigrants left Italy. It was as if the entire Italian population of the early 19th century had abandoned the country, leaving it empty. The majority of Italian emigrants, more than 14 million, left in the years following the unification of Italy, during the period that later became known as the “great emigration” (1876-1915).
Of them, a good part came to Brazil. Here, they were welcomed with the same prejudices with which, today, many Italians often treat Third World refugees who, in desperation, knock on their doors.
Manifesto made in 1886 by the federative State of São Paulo, aimed at potential Italian emigrants who decided to leave for Brazil.
The Great Emigration
Entire small towns, like Padula in the province of Salerno, saw their population drop by half in the decade that saw the transition from the 19th to the 20th century. Of these, almost a third had North America as their dream destination, which had a great need of labor.
It wasn't just manual laborers who left. The poorest sections of the population in reality were unable to pay for the trip and, for this reason, the largest number of travelers were small landowners who, with their meager savings, were able to purchase a one-way ticket to the New World.
After two decades in which the main destinations were Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, New York and the United States in general became the most sought after destinations. But they weren't the only ones, in the same way that it wasn't just from southern Italy. The Genoese, for example, were already emigrating to Argentina and Uruguay well before 1861.
Exactly like the refugees who arrive in Italy (and several other European countries) today, Italian emigrants generally did not start the adventure with the whole family: emigration was almost always planned as a temporary necessity, and the person who left was usually just one man. alone.
An important exception to this rule was the great peasant emigration of entire families from Veneto and southern Italy to Brazil, especially soon after the abolition of slavery (1888) and the announcement, by the Brazilian government, of a vast program of colonization and (false) benefits offered to immigrants.
Journeys of hope
Almost always, those departing from the northern regions embarked in Genoa or the port of Le Havre, in France. Those leaving from the south of the country, in turn, boarded in Naples. The ratio between first class and third class passengers was 17 to 5, and the differences in treatment given to the latter were abysmal. For these, only a bag full of straw was given and a single bathroom was available for every 100 people. They were the only comforts on a trip that could last a month or more.
The main anchorage for ships loaded with immigrants destined for North America was on Ellis Island, in New York Bay. In Brazil, Santos and Rio were the main ports (the screening of people used to happen later, in São Paulo). Many died during the journey and those who survived were subjected shortly after arrival to scrupulous examinations carried out by the health authorities. It was feared that the Italians would bring diseases such as trachoma (an eye infection that can lead to blindness). After the medical visits, a psycho-behavioral consultation took place. Anyone who did not overcome the controls, which normally lasted up to three days (in prison-like environments), was marked with an X stamped on their clothes and sent back on the first available ship.
In the documents provided to the Italians, next to the writing White, which indicated the color of the skin, a question mark sometimes appeared: another indication of the racism suffered by Italians by part of North American society at the time.
In South America it was much easier to gain a place in the new homeland, but in the United States the difficulties were enormous. For this reason, in the north, Italians preferred to organize themselves in ghettos that quickly became Italian neighborhoods in which children attended Italian parochial schools, which greatly delayed the learning and spread of the English language in these communities.
Racial prejudice
In the United States, which had recently abolished slavery, it was said that Italians “were not black, but they were not white either”. In Australia, another important destination for immigration, things were even worse: the arrival of the Italians was defined as “the invasion of the greenskins”. Italians were classified as belonging to an “inferior race” or constituents of “a breed of murderers, anarchists and mafiosi”. In a telephone intercept in 1973, US President Richard Nixon could not be clearer. He said, “They’re not like us. The difference can already be seen in the different smell they exude, in their different appearance, in their different way of acting. The worst thing is that you can’t find a single one who is honest.”
Limitations and borders
In the United States, immigration of Italian citizens stopped during the First World War. In 1921, the Emergency quota act imposed a ceiling on the number of immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe, as it came to be believed that some people – Italians first on the list – were less assimilable. Only during the Second World War, thanks to the enlistment of many Italian-Americans in the ranks of the North American army, did integration manage to take important and concrete steps forward.
Perhaps precisely because of this integration, shortly after the end of the war, there was a resumption of Italian emigration to the United States. But it was short-lived: in Europe itself, a new emigration route had just opened, this time to the northern countries: France, Germany and Belgium, the most sought after.
But not even in these countries were Italians welcomed with open arms, especially because half of them left as clandestine people, without work. They defied laws and prejudices and tried to cross borders imbued with the indestructible hope of guaranteeing a better life for themselves and their families.
By Oásis Team/brazil247
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