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Italian Immigration 1880-1920

The Experience

By Sachin Khadse and Luke Harris

Little Italy, New York

Little Italy is located in lower Manhattan, New York City. It was populated at close to 400,000 Italian-American immigrants in 1920. In recent years Chinatown has started to engulf part of Little Italy. Italian mafia members have had disputes with Chinese triad members over territories since immigration into the US started.

The Italian immigrants had a rough experience in the United States. They were denied jobs because of their possible affiliation with Italian mafia gang members. Italians were able to maintain their own culture in places such as Little Italy, New York and Lavallette, New Jersey. In these communities, they are able to associate themselves and live with others who share the same beliefs. The Italian immigrants were treated poorly by the American born population because immigrants would work for less money in order to land a job. Americans did not like that so they persecuted many groups of immigrants.

Conclusion

Immigration through Ellis Island

Close to 4 million Italians moved to the US between 1880-1920. They brought with them their values and traditions. Many small Italian communities have come up because of the early discrimination against them. They faced many hardships such as blacklisting, struggling with Immigration laws, and the fight for jobs against Americans and other immigrants. Even though they started off rough, they stayed and have influenced many people with their unique culture. The Italian immigrants, just like most other immigrants, came here for a new life and a fresh start. They had to earn that and prove themselves to the American citizens which many of them did.

Between 1876 and 1924 more than four and a half million Italian immigrants arrived in the US at the Federal Immigration station called Ellis Island. Before integrating into American society, these immigrants had to go through a series of procedures. Upon leaving Italy or shortly after, documents with the passengers' information, including name, age and destination were written. At Ellis Island, the captain signed the document over to inspectors, who then checked off peoples names as they passed, according to first person accounts. The inspection process from then on was difficult for the immigrants. As they walked into the gateway of the station, doctors visually assessed their health. The immigrants were then taken to a health inspection where another doctor physically checked them for symptoms of disease. Often times, if an immigrant showed signs of an illness, they would be rejected and sent home immediately. Other immigrants though passed their health inspections and continued on in the process which was a legal inspection. Some immigrants were held at the island for certain offenses and then rejected from or detained on the island. The legal inspection that followed the health inspection was a stressful and tedious process that was a hassle for not only the immigrants, but also the Ellis Island workers. Immigrants would often wait hours for their name to be called in the loud room. Once a staff person called your name, you would be asked a series of questions that sometimes varied from person to person. If the immigrants answered the questions successfully, they were welcomed into the United States.

A group of Italian immigrants arriving to

Ellis island from the boat.

Overview of Italian Immigration

Declaration of Intention by an Italian Immigrant.

An official performs a physical examination on

an Italian immigrant. In this case, he specifically

checks for trachoma, a contagious eye disease.

A group of mostly male immigrants who made it into the United States.

Famous Italian-Americans

Joe DiMaggio: Yankee Hall of Famer

Frank Sinatra: Pop, jazz, and swing vocalist

Fiorello LaGuardia: Mayor of New York 1934-1945

Enrico Fermi: Nobel Prize winner for Physics

Madonna: singer, producer, actress

Life of an Italian-American

Immigration Laws

Introduction

Birds of Passage

In 1921, Congress enacted the Emergency Quota Act, the first immigration law. This legislation restricted the number of immigrants by their country of origin. Only 3% of the number of persons from that nation living in the U.S. were allowed to immigrate. So if there were 100 million Italian immigrants in the US, only 3 million from Italy could immigrate into the US that year. The legislation was enacted in order to limit more “new immigrants” from arriving and essentially the U.S. closed itself to mass immigration.

Birds of Passage is another phrase for a person who immigrates to a country looking primarily for a job. Once they have earned enough money they will move back to their home country and start a new life by themselves or with their family.

A majority of Italian immigrants were known as birds of passage. The process the Italians went through was hard. Many could not come to the US because they might have connections to Italian gangs. Al Capone created a lot of trouble for the US with his alcohol smuggling industry. In order to travel to the US, immigrants needed to have a small amount of money, a way to get to the US, and a clean criminal background. Back in Italy population was rising. This along with low wages and high taxes caused people to want to leave. In America, many jobs would not hire Italians and they ended up working at factories.

Becoming a Citizen

Bibliography

Since the early days of Christopher Columbus, many different countries have been represented in the population that immigrates to North America. Even before the founding of Italy in 1861, the Italian peninsula sent millions of its inhabitants to the shores of North America. A bulk of this immigration was a result of the Italian unification which was around 1861-1976. Over 26 million people immigrated during this period, half of them towards other European countries, the rest towards North and South America. Between 1900 and 1915, 3 million Italians immigrated to America, which was the largest nationality of new immigrants. The main reason was the slow and difficult development of the Italian economy and the increasing economies and opportunities in other countries (especially America). Other more obvious factors like the poverty and a corrupt government caused these Italians to emigrate.

The most common scenario: The married Italian male (illegal) immigrant came to the US, leaving his family behind. He lived and worked in the US for about 5 years or so, applied for and obtained US citizenship. He then sent for his wife and children. They arrived in the states not as foreigners, but as US citizens, because of the husband's citizenship. There was to be no individual record his family members other than the petition. If the citizen married after his naturalization, the wife would also have derived citizenship, but there would be no record of that fact anywhere.

Al Capone

Al Capone was the most notorious gangster of the early 20th century. His parents were Italian immigrants who came to the US in the late 1800s. He made his money during the prohibition era by smuggling alcohol through out the country. The law could not catch him for these crimes. He was finally put into jail for tax evasion rather than any of his other crimes.

Before 1922, women carried the citizenship of their husband. If an Italian woman married a US citizen, she automatically became a citizen. Also, when the man became a citizen, all of the minor children included in his Declaration of Intention became citizens too.The same rule works backwards: if a natural-born US woman citizen married an alien, she lost her US citizenship.

A small family

of Italians who

will most likely

seek citizenship.

1) Oracle. (n.d.). Immigration: The Italians. Retrieved from http://library.thinkquest.org/20619/Italian.html

2) The American Immigration Law Foundation. (2014, May 17). The story of italian immigration . Retrieved from http://www.ailf.org/awards/benefit2004/ahp04essay.asp

3) (Book) d.i. Franco, J. P. (1995). The italian americans. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers.

(In-text reference) - (d.i. Franco, 1995)

4) Spartacus Educational. (n.d.). Italian immigration. Retrieved from http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAEitaly.htm

5) Hinckley, M. (n.d.). About italian immigration. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/about_4673362_italian-immigration.html

6) Path. (n.d.). Immigration facts. Retrieved from http://www.path.coe.uh.edu/seminar2002/week2/immigrant_facts.pdf

7) Italian american. (2012, October 5). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_American

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