The Italians Come to America

In 1870, prior to the large wave of Italian immigrants to the United States, there were fewer than 25,000 Italian immigrants in America, many of them Northern Italian refugees from the wars that accompanied the Risorgimento—the struggle for Italian reunification and independence from foreign rule which ended in 1870. Immigration began to increase during the 1870s, when more than twice as many Italians immigrated than during the five previous decades combined. From 1880 to 1914, 13 million Italians migrated out of Italy, making Italy the scene of one of the largest voluntary emigrations in recorded world history. During this period of mass migration, 4 million Italians arrived in the United States, 3 million of them between 1900 and 1914. They came for the most part from southern Italy: the provinces of Abruzzo, Campania, Apulia, Basilicata, and Calabria and from the island of Sicily. Most planned to stay a few years, then take their earnings and return home. According to historian Thomas J. Archdeacon, 46% of the Italians who entered the U.S. between 1899 and 1924 permanently returned home.