What Are The Causes Of Italian Immigration To America

Sydney Kingsberg
Section 107, David Hyde
27 April 2015
Research Paper
Between the years of 1880 and 1920, more than 4 million Italians immigrated to America (Hall 1987: 54). Italy was compromised of many races of different origins, and there was a broad distinction between the northern and southern Italians. Southern Italians were poor, unskilled workers who worked in agriculture. The northern Italians were generally wealthier, more enterprising, and more intelligent than their fellow southern countrymen. The group of northern Italians were peaceable and industrious, and improved the trades in which they engaged. Although these two groups were quite different, they both chose to relocate to America (Hall 1987:55). The earliest and largest
Immigrants were blamed for taking American jobs and making America less pure. There were racial theories circulating in the press, advancing pseudo scientific theories that alleged “Mediterranean” types of Europeans were inherently inferior to people of northern European heritage. These Social Darwinist theories gave new prestige to racism as scholars claimed that the “Teutonic” race was superior to all others (LaGumina 1999:16). Applied to immigration, this meant that the superior races came from Germany and the English colonies. Groups like the Klu Klux Klan attacked Italian-Catholic churches based off of these premises (LaGumina 1999:15). These hate groups believed brown men lowered the American standard. Italians as well as other immigrants were required to take illiteracy tests that concluded certain races were not suited to be apart of American civilization. Nativists witnessed that they were radically different from them in education, habits of life, and institutions of government. Because of this, they thought they would never assimilate naturally with the prevailing Anglo-Saxons. As students, Italians were rated “below even the Portuguese… and the Poles…” (Scuyler 1977:11). Italians became one of the major racial targets for
They improved their social and economic positions considerably in the 20th century, and this mobility was relatively rapid. However, the progress of the Italians was not quite as rapid as the Jews. Looking at statistics, Jews formed a white-collar class that was 26 per cent larger than the corresponding Italian class by 1905 (Kessner 1957:268). This could be due to the fact that many northern Italians capable of white-collar work were much more emotionally tied to home and many moved back and forth. The lack of permanent commitment can be seen as a major factor in why Italians had a harder time entering the white-collar job market. Italians also had to adapt to an urban environment, since most were peasant farmers from regions in the south. This rural peasant background transmitted different values towards education, work, family, and ambition than the American living in the city. These factors contributed to why it was difficult for the Italian to adapt.
Although the Italian faced harsh obstacles, not all Americans felt the same about the Italians. Respected social workers such as Jane Addams and William Dean Howells felt sympathy towards the Italians and defended them. A group of New Englanders even came together in 1901 to create the Society for the Protection of Italian Immigrants in New York (LaGumina 1999:18). This was just the start of positive Italian sentiment. Racism gradually decreased as Italians proved to