Italian Immigration

   Italians moved to the U.S for a better life. Back in their home country they had poverty, overpopulation, diseases and many natural disasters. Birthrates rose and death rates fell in the 1870s. In 1900, the illiteracy rate in southern Italy was 70 percent. Northerner Italians placed high taxes on southerners who had a hard time trying to find fertile soil because of erosion and deforestation. If that wasn’t hard enough volcanoes erupted and earthquakes shook.

   Like every other immigration journey at that time traveling to America was dangerous. Sailing ships took from about six to fourteen weeks, depending on the weather, to cross the Atlantic Ocean. In these journeys passengers endangered their lives. They suffered from mistreatment of the crew, bad food or from the excess of people aboard. Also, passengers could die because of shortage of food supplies, illness, fires or shipwrecks.   

   Many immigrants did not plan to stay in America. They didn’t want to plant and there was no cheap land left either, so many moved to cities were work was needed. Italians would often form groups relating to their place of origin. In these, they lived in poor, filthy conditions that most Americans considered intolerable. Italians wanted to save money the most they could; they would even skip meals to do this. Common jobs Italians got in the beginning were shoe shinning, rag picking, sewer cleaning, and whatever hard, dirty, dangerous occupations others didn’t wanted. Then they started to become fishermen, shoemakers, waiters, fruit sellers, and tradesmen. However, most got heavy construction jobs; they dug tunnels, laid railroad tracks, constructed bridges and roads, and built the first skyscrapers.

   Researching about Italian immigration has changed my perspective about it. Now I see how many people worked immensely for a better life. It has made me admire what they did. I can’t imagine myself as an Italian going through all of what they went through in their home country and in America as an immigrant just to seek a better future.

Italian Immigrant family

For more information visit:
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/italian_immigration.cfm
http://library.thinkquest.org/20619/Italian.html