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Maremma amara
Mamma mia dammi cento lire
Sta terra nun fa pi’mmia
Muglierema luntana
Merica bella merica cara
Simu emigranti
La canzone dell’emigrante
La canzone degli emigranti
La preghiera dell’emigrante
L’addio dell’emigrante
Le pene dell’emigrante
Lu minaturi all’estiru
La mamma dell’emigrato
Lettera d’emigrante
Storia dell’emigrante calabrese. Calabrian emigrant story
La triste storia di un emigrante
La storia dell’emigrante siciliana
Rosa di sangue
(Storia di un emigrante calabrese)
Emigrante brava gente
E cantava le canzoni
Terra che non senti
Lamento del contadino
Cu quattru soddi m’accattai na vigna
Lamentu pi la morti di Turiddu Carnivali
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One of the Largest Population Movements
in Modern Times
The massive emigration of Italians, which began after the
unification of Italy in 1861, is unique in terms of its causes
and magnitude.
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Emigrants waiting to board, Naples, Italy, c. 1910.
Source: © Touring Club Italiano, operated by Archivi Alinari |
Over the course of almost a century, nearly 26 million Italians
left their homeland. The first major wave of emigration began in
the 1870s and continued until the 1920s, when the number of departures
decreased. More than 20 years elapsed before the second wave of
emigration, from 1946 to the end of the 1970s.
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Emigration from Italy by region, 1876-1971
Source: © Gianfausto Rosoli, ed.,
Un secolo di emigrazione italiana,
1876-1976, Rome, Centro Studi Emigrazione, 1978, pp. 378-383. |
The exodus was prompted mainly by the economic policy of the
Italian government, which favoured industry over agriculture and
focused industrialization efforts in the northwestern regions.
For quite a while, in several other regions, the economy continued
to be dominated by weakened unindustrialized agriculture. At the
same time, a number of traditional trades in these regions were hit
hard by competition from goods manufactured in the industrialized
Northwest.
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Advertising poster for a new shipping company that travelled to the United States, 1908
Source: © Archives, Istituto per la Storia dell'Umbria Contemporanea, Perugia |
This state of chronic underdevelopment, aggravated by the
devastation of two world wars, remained substantially unchanged
until the 1960s. With no political or social solutions in sight,
many Italians, determined to escape poverty and seek a brighter
future, chose to emigrate.
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Family-home keys brought to
Canada by Italian immigrants |
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House keys from the family home of Francesca Schembri
Sicily region, Italy
1896-1902
Metal
Lent by Francesca Schembri |
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