Italians around the World: Teaching Italian Migration from a Transnational Perspective

Dennis J. Townsend

Reprinted from the OAH Magazine of History
14 (Fall 1999). ISSN 0882-228X
Copyright (c) 1999, Organization of American Historians
 

The Age of Immigration, 1870 to 1920, is usually a major unit for United States history classes. More often than not, the exodus of European and Asian immigrants to the United States for economic and political freedom forms the core focus. Within the unit teachers stress the effects of settlement on the immigrants and their contributions to their newfound homes.

Unfortunately, such an approach to immigration is not without problems. Students are led to believe that immigration took place in one giant wave and then basically stopped. Furthermore, instructors too often ignore the fact that a fair number of these immigrants were seasonal workers who returned to their homelands. Likewise, many classes fail to discuss the networking that took place among the immigrants and the impact such a network had on economic and geographic decisions. Finally, students hardly ever learn that there were destinations other than the United States for migrants.

I believe that teaching a unit based on the migratory experience of one particular group of immigrants gives a better understanding of the entire immigration experience. Thus, in this lesson, I have focused on Italian immigrants, as they moved throughout the world during this era. Likewise, by studying the events taking place in the United States and the newly-born nation of Italy during the Age of Immigration, students see a connection between United States history and world history. The following lesson plan, divided into three sections, provides a comparative global perspective of the Italian diaspora and thus will enhance the teaching of the immigration experience.

The three sections of the lesson require a total of four class periods.

This part of the lesson uses group work to introduce the economic factors that influenced migration.

This section takes two class periods to complete.

1. To understand the concept of a diaspora.
2. To gain an introductory knowledge of the economic needs of the United States and other world regions during this period.

Materials Needed

U.S. history text books
World history text books
Related books and magazines
Internet connection (if possible)

Procedure

1. Open with a student discussion on "What is a Diaspora?" Allow the students to give examples of their understanding of the term. Guide the class to an understanding that diasporas are not always politically motivated but can also be driven by economic decisions.

2. Divide the class into four equal groups. Have each group research and answer one of the following four questions, using the materials listed above. Emphasize that each group should focus on the economic factors involved in their area of research.

1. How did the emancipation of slaves affect the plantation and extraction industries of the American South?
   
2. How did the spread of industrial capitalism affect the northeastern United States?
   
3. How did the spreading of capitalism in Great Britain and northern Europe affect the African and Asian world?
   
4. What did the nations of South America offer as an incentive for immigrating there and why?
   

3. Have the students present their findings to the entire class.

Using maps, this part of the lesson connects economic circumstances to the geographic movement of people.

Time Frame

Section II can be completed in one class period.

Objective

To develop an understanding of Italian migration during the Age of Immigration.

Materials Needed

Map of Italy, photocopied for each student
Map of the world, photocopied for each student

Procedure

1. Hand out copies of a map of Italy and have the students study its topographic features. Ask the students where industrial and agricultural development would be likely to take place and why.

2. Lead a class discussion of possible parallels between the United States and Italy during the late nineteenth century.

3. After the students have developed their hypotheses, provide a brief overview of Italy in the nineteenth century, using the lecture format given below.

4. Divide the students into small groups and have them consider where people with the following occupations would migrate to.

1. Mason
   
2. Day laborer
   
3. Miner
   
4. Farmer
   
5. Merchant
   

5. Hand out copies of a world map and have the students:

1. chart the passage of each group;
   
2. explain on the back of the map why they chose the destination they did; and
   
3. explain on the back of the map how the migrants traveled and how they obtained the means to do so.
   

Lecture Format

A. Italian Unification

1. The Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) had serious consequences in Italy.

1. Prince Klemens von Metternich of Austria sought to strengthen the countries around France in order to stop French aggression, restore a balance of power, and restore royal families to thrones lost during the reign of Napoleon.
   
2. Italy was divided and placed under foreign control: Austria ruled northern Italy; Spain ruled southern Italy.
   

2. During 1848 revolts took place in eight separate states on the Italian Peninsula.

1. Giuseppe Mazzini, an early leader of Italian nationalism, briefly headed a republican government in Rome.
   
2. As the revolts failed, the former rulers returned.
   
3. Italian nationalists looked toward the Kingdom of Sardinia for leadership. Made up of Piedmont, Nice, Savoy, and the island of Sardinia, it was the only Italian state ruled by an Italian dynasty.
   

3. In 1852 King Victor Emmanuel II named Count Camillo di Cavour prime minister.

1. Cavour was a moderate nationalist who made the unification of Italy his highest priority.
   
2. Cavour used an alliance with Napoleon III to annex all of northern Italy, except Venetia, by 1860.
   
3. Cavour secretly aided nationalist rebels in the southern half of Italy.
   

4. In May 1860 Giuseppe Garibaldi led his "Red Shirts" into battle in Sicily.

1. Garibaldi was victorious and marched north to liberate Italy, gaining volunteers along the way.
   
2. Count Cavour arranged a meeting between Garibaldi and King Victor Emmanuel II in Naples.
   
3. Garibaldi willingly gave the king ruling power over southern Italy.
   

5. In March 1861 the Italian parliament met in Turin and declared Victor Emmanuel II king of Italy.

1. The new nation had a government led by a constitutional monarch and elected parliament.
   
2. In 1866 Venetia became part of Italy.
   
3. In 1871 Italy took over the papal states and Rome became the capital city.
   

B. Italian development

1. Northern Italy industrialized.

1. The parliament saw this as a necessary step in the development of the Italian nation.
   
2. Parliament passed laws favoring northern industrialization at the expense of southern Italy. (Southern Italy was seen as backward--too agrarian to modernize.)
   
3. Northern cities attracted workers from across Italy and other parts of the world. A poor industrial proletariat developed in the North.
   
4. Northern cities wanted cheap food and raw materials from the southern half of Italy.
   

2. Southern Italy developed a plantation system.

1. Poor farmers lost their land due to indebtedness.
   
2. Rich landowners and northern investors bought the cheap land.
   
3. Southern farmers either became tenant farmers or migrant farm hands.
   

3. Low wages and poor working conditions became the impetus for immigrating.

This section adds a comparative perspective to the lesson by focusing on Italians and Russian Jews.

Time Frame

One class period is necessary for the completion of this lesson.

Objectives

1. To comprehend the migratory experience of Italians during the Age of Immigration.

2. To gain a comparative perspective by studying the experience of Russian Jewish immigrants.

Procedure

1. Open the class with the following statement: "You are a poor farm laborer and have received a letter from your brother telling you about job opportunities in the United States. He encourages you to join him. What should you do?"

1. As the students respond, add that they are married with children. Then continue asking them what they would do.
   
2. Encourage the students to consider all of the problems and possibilities involved with migrating to the United States.
   

2. Using the lecture format given below, provide an overview of the experience of Italians and Russian Jews who immigrated.

3. Have the students write an essay from the perspective of a wife whose husband has migrated to the United States and requested that she join him there.

Lecture Format

A. Between 1870 and 1920 two-thirds of Italian immigrants were men.

1. Prior to 1896 over 50 percent were peasants.
   
2. From 1896 to 1920 the majority were braccianti (landless, wage earning laborers), and the rest were either artisans or industrial workers.
   

B. The oppression of Russian Jews during the pogroms sanctioned by the Czar encouraged many Jews to leave Russia.

1. The majority of Jewish emigrants from Russia were of the Orthodox tradition in Judaism.

2. Many of these immigrants took jobs in U.S. cities in either the garment industry or the diamond industry.

3. This group struggled with the settled German Jewish community, the majority of which were of the Reformed tradition.

1. The Reformed Jewish tradition favored cultural assimilation whereas the Orthodox tradition preferred to be a separate people, culturally.
   
2. German Jews looked upon the Russian Jews as being backward due to their dress and religious practices, which continued to reflect their former way of life in Russia.
   

C. "Networking" had a profound impact on the immigration experience.

1. Italian men who worked abroad periodically returned to Italy.

1. Some of these men had earned enough money to buy a piece of land in Italy and retire there.
   
2. Others visited their old homes and told of job opportunities.
   
3. The returning workers provided names and references to Italian men who had trade skills so they could obtain employment abroad.
   

2. Industries in the United States hired skilled Italian men as labor recruiters who returned to their hometowns to hire skilled laborers.

1. These labor recruiters hired skilled workers for designated jobs in specific corporations.
   
2. The recruiters promised a better life for the workers in the United States.
   

3. Family members, friends, and former neighbors wrote letters telling of the job opportunities abroad.

1. The established immigrants sent photographs of life in their newfound homes to entice immigration.
   
2. Family members mailed money to help their kin afford emigration.
   
3. Family members that were established in the new country temporarily housed relatives and helped them find jobs, usually in the same place of employment.
   

D. Migrants faced cultural and economic obstacles when traveling to a new location.

Archdeacon, Thomas J. Becoming American: An Ethnic History. New York: The Free Press, 1983.

Bodnar, John. The Transplanted: A History of Immigrants in Urban America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985.

Gabaccia, Donna. From Sicily to Elizabeth Street: Housing and Social Change Among Italian Immigrants, 1880-1930. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984.

Hammond Historical Atlas of the World. Revised edition. Maplewood NJ: Hammond, 1989.

Howe, Irving. World of Our Fathers. New York: Schocken Books, 1989.

Kessner, Thomas. The Golden Door: Italian and Jewish Mobility in New York City, 1880-1915. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977.

Taylor, Philip. The Distant Magnet: European Emigration to the U.S.A. New York: Harper and Row, 1971.

The World in My Hand: Italian Emigration in the World, 1860-1960. Roma: Centro Studi Emigrazione, 1997.

Dennis J. Townsend holds a Bachelor's degree in history and social studies education from Rutgers University. He teaches history at Providence High School in Charlotte, North Carolina, and is currently a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.