Masses of people were moving around the world, seeking new . Before World War II, relatively few Italian immigrants arrived, though there were some prominent exceptions such as the Cape's first Prime Minister John Molteno. "+J);}).call(this); Canada will be next. An article written during the interwar period on April 17, 1921, in the same newspaper, used the headlines "Italians Coming in Great Numbers" and "Number of Immigrants Will Be Limited Only By Capacity of Liners" (there was now a limited number of ships available because of recent wartime losses) and that potential immigrants were thronging the quays in the cities of Genoa. It achieved some significant results - at any rate in Europe. [5] That created a demographic boom and forced the new generations to emigrate en masse in the late 19th century and the early 20th century, mostly to the Americas. The Italian community in Lebanon is very small (about 4,300 people) and it is mostly assimilated into the Lebanese Catholic community. "Italian Emigration Law", New York Times, September 3, 1903. From the 1920s to the 1950s more Italians, now especially from southern Italy, who were earlier treated as "undesirable" by Mexican immigration authorities, started to enter the country. From that date there was a boom in migratory flows towards West Germany, which were much more conspicuous than those that had occurred between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. The epidemics were the driving force behind the decision to rebuild entire sections of the city, an undertaking known as the "risanamento" (literally "making healthy again"), a pursuit that lasted until the start of World War I. [91][92] Small southern Brazilian towns, such as Nova Veneza, have as much as 95% of their population as people with Italian descent. As of 2017, there are approximately 700,000 Italians in Germany, while in Switzerland this number reaches approximately 500,000. Migration to Australia in the 1800s | State Library of NSW The south lacked entrepreneurs, and absentee landlords were common. [84] However, the stream of Italian immigration to Argentina became a mass phenomenon between 1880 and 1920 when Italy was facing social and economic disturbances. George Megalogenis 0:13. Italian immigration to Argentina, along with Spanish, formed the backbone of Argentine society. [40] After this, the Frescobaldi of Florence took over the role as money lenders to the English crown.[41]. Especially in Southern Italy, conditions were harsh. Australia's post-war migration was a success, let's admit it Italian Migration to USA Before, During and After World War 2 - Trace.com Italian immigration was an important part of that, as between 1880-1920 Italy was facing social and economic disturbances. [103] It was not until after World War II that large numbers of immigrants from southern Italy emigrated to France, usually settling in industrialized areas of France such as Lorraine, Paris and Lyon. Conspicuous was the presence of Italian emigrants even in territories that have never been Italian colonies, such as Egypt. oneSignal_options['welcomeNotification'] = { }; Italian Zambians have a community and church in their town of Lusaka. Finally, the fourth phase is that of the postwar period: from 1945 to 1970 - a period of profound economic, social and political changes - migratory flows returned to be particularly large, especially from the south of the country. Migration/Immigration of Peoples:1750-1900 timeline | Timetoast Loud, Alex Metcalfe, "I PAESI della SICILIA dove si parla LOMBARDO", "Dal Piemonte alla Francia: la perdita dell'identit nizzarda e savoiarda", Claudio Raffaelli: "Quelli che non vollero diventare francesi", "La Repubblica italiana | Treccani, il portale del sapere", "Fuga dall'utopia. The concepts of multi-ethnicity and naturalization in football have affected the whole world, so much so that at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in the squads of the 32 participating national teams there were 83 oriundi.[122]. Between the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the next, the flow of Italian emigrants around the world greatly attenuated. 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; Mocked outcasts to cultural mainstays: How Italian migrants reshaped OneSignal.SERVICE_WORKER_UPDATER_PATH = "OneSignalSDKUpdaterWorker.js.php"; Convict transportation From 1788 to 1868 Britain transported more than 160,000 convicts from its overcrowded prisons to the Australian colonies, forming the basis of the first migration from Europe to Australia. Key statistics. From 1832 until the 1850s around 357,000 assisted migrants came to Australia. Why did people move out of Italy? And a chance for a better life! oneSignal_options['notifyButton'] = { }; by John MacRitchie, Silvana Toia and Gina Polito. Foreign newspapers ran scare stories similar to those published 40 years earlier (when, for example, on December 18, 1880, The New York Times ran an editorial, "Undesirable Emigrants", full of typical invective of the day against the "promiscuous immigration [of]the filthy, wretched, lazy, criminal dregs of the meanest sections of Italy"). ISBN: 0522851118. Italian emigration was fueled by dire poverty. How Greeks Came to Immigrate to Australia - GreekReporter.com Some Reflections on Italian Immigration Into Australia* By N. O. P. PYKEf In view of the ambitious migration plans of the present Aus tralian Government, problems of immigration supply obtrude. Perhaps the simplest way to document the story of Italian migration to Australia is in the form of a timeline, starting with a historic voyage that marks the beginning of Australias colonial history: By the mid-1970s, many Italians who had arrived in Australia after World War 11 ran successful businesses and owned their own homes and at least one rental property. As of 2017, Italian Egyptians only amounted to a few thousand. Italians helped build the modern city and have made a profound impact on NYC's arts, politics, dialect, and, of course, cuisine. [82] Two years earlier, the Transatlantic Steam Navigation Company with the New World had been founded in Genoa, the main shareholder of which was King Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont-Sardinia. Why Italian immigrants came to Australia? - Heimduo [14] This constant flow of people made Turin's population grow from 719,000 inhabitants in 1951 to 1,168,000 in 1971. The economic success of Ingham's Italian community proved toxic despite the support of local police and many Anglo-Australians. [21] The revolution of 1917 sent many of them to Italy, or to other cities in Europe. As for the overall reasons of immigrating . Una nuova stima sulla base dei profili di Facebook", "Gli italiani continuano a emigrare; un milione in fuga negli ultimi 4 anni", "Storie mobili - La libert di circolazione delle persone". The 2013 Census counted 3,795 New Zealanders of Italian descent. Italy has also experienced significant internal migrations within the Italian geographical borders. Yes, there have been Italians moving to Australia at almost the same time when Captain Cook discovered the country. [15] Given that this economic growth mostly concerned Northwest Italy, which was involved in the birth of many industrial activities, migratory phenomena affected the peasants of the Triveneto and southern Italy, who began to move in large numbers. The first Italians that headed to the Americas settled in the territories of the Spanish Empire as early as the 16th century. [14] After 1970 there was a strong contraction in arrivals, which occurred during the 1973 oil crisis, and many of the migrants returned to their places of origin. Were they friends? Some Reflections on Italian Immigration into Australia - JSTOR Australia Emigration and Immigration - Wiki page with databases which also include Italians; Australia Background [edit | edit source]. [15] Other areas of northern Italy were also affected by emigration such as the rural areas of Mantua and Cremona. var __ATA = __ATA || {}; Italians in Australia - Life in Italy 1930 - 1940. Examples of such restrictions in the United States were the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 and the Immigration Act of 1924. Italian diaspora - Wikipedia oneSignal_options['welcomeNotification']['title'] = ""; Though the modern state of Italy had yet to be established, the Latin equivalent of the, Mediterranean Fascism 1919-1945 Edited by Charles F. Delzel, Harper Rowe 1970, page 3. Arthur Calwell, Minister for Immigration, wanted nine out of ten new immigrants to be British. Why did people move from Europe to South Australia in the 19th century? function documentInitOneSignal() { [33] The architecture of Corfu City still reflects its long Venetian heritage, with its multi-storied buildings, its spacious squares such as the popular "Spianada" and the narrow cobblestone alleys known as "Kantounia". Corfiot Italians were mainly concentrated in the city of Corfu, which was called "Citt di Corfu" by the Venetians. var oneSignalLinkClickHandler = function(event) { OneSignal.push(['registerForPushNotifications']); event.preventDefault(); }; for(var i = 0; i < oneSignal_elements.length; i++) [151] Most went to Italy, and in smaller numbers, towards the Americas, Australia and South Africa. The Italian emigrants were about 7.3 million. Sweden and migration | sweden.se 1940 . Historically, most Italians have been Roman Catholics. [79] In 1524 the Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European to map the Atlantic coast of today's United States, and to enter New York Bay. [47] Accurate figures on the decades between 1870 and World War I show how emigration increased dramatically during that period: Italian emigrants per 1,000 population:[115], The high point of Italian emigration was in 1913, when 872,598 people left Italy. Furthermore, 54.8% of Italian emigrants are of southern origin (over 1,400,000 from the South and almost 800,000 from the Islands); 30.1% comes from the northern regions (almost 600,000 from the Northeast and 580,000 from the Northwest); finally, 15% (588,717) comes from the central regions. Few Italians left Lebanon for France after independence. Assisted migration introduced | Australia's Defining Moments Digital [32] The re-emergence of Greek nationalism, after the Napoleonic era, contributed to the gradual disappearance of the Corfiot Italians. Only in Argentina, according to an estimate,[121] there are tens of millions of Italian oriundi and no less nourished are the communities in the United States of America and Brazil, other main destinations of the aforementioned migratory flow at the turn of the 20th century. [28] After Napoleonic times, many Sicilians and some Tuscans migrated to Gibraltar, but the Genoese and Ligurians remained the majority of the Italian group. Per L'Australia: the story of Italian Migration by Julia Church. [44], The Italian diaspora did not affect all regions of the nation equally. The Italian diaspora (Italian: emigrazione italiana, pronounced[emiratsjone italjana]) is the large-scale emigration of Italians from Italy. Once communities were established, other Italians came to join family and seek economic opportunity. })(); The sailors were eventually pardoned, but two decided to stay and settle. PDF Italians in Australia: Migration and Profile - Altreitalie The effect was most obvious on the Asian population. Waves of immigration have shapedand reshapedthe identity of the Australian nation. New York has been called "the Italian American capital" because it is home to the largest Italian American population in the U.S.. After Charles died in 1574, Catherine played a key role in the reign of her third son, Henry III. One million Australians . [94] Between the early-1950s and the mid-1960s, approximately 20,000 to 30,000 Italians emigrated to Canada each year. Italian migration began increasing dramatically 75 years ago at the end of World War II. 306,928. [142] In the same period people from Northern Italy also emigrated to Basilicata. oneSignal_options['notifyButton']['text'] = {}; CO.AS.IT. The phenomenon of the so-called "new emigration"[59] caused by the serious economic crisis also affects all of southern Europe such as countries like Spain, Portugal and Greece (as well as Ireland and France) which record similar, if not greater, emigration trends. During the late Middle Ages and early modern times many Italians came to Germany for business, and relations between the two countries prospered. More than 3.5 million italians emigrated in those 20 years. [152], With the fall of Fascist regime in 1943, and the end of World War II in 1945, a large internal migratory flow began from one Italian region to another. Migration to Australia Post WWII - LibGuides at Marian College A nation of . "="+encodeURIComponent(String(c)):"";if(b+=c){c=a.indexOf("#");0>c&&(c=a.length);var d=a.indexOf("? Many went to Veracruz, Guadalajara and the capital, Mexico City, where a sizeable community emerged. [43] The numbers may have even been higher; 14 million from 1876 to 1914, according to another study. Call Number: 994.00451 CHU. [23] The few survivors were allowed to return to Kerch under Nikita Khrushchev's regency. In the second phase of emigration (1900 to World War I), slightly less than half of emigrants were from the south and most of them were from rural areas, as they were driven off the land by inefficient land management, lawlessness and sickness (pellagra and cholera). Almost 3 million Italians arrived from 1857 through 1940, 45% of all aliens to arrive! [94] Approximately 40,000 Italians came to Canada during the interwar period between 1914 and 1918, predominantly from southern Italy where an economic depression and overpopulation had left many families in poverty. In the main these early immigrants settled down in the . [83] Emigration to the Americas was of considerable size from the second half of the 19th century to the first decades of the 20th century. The 2006 Census counted 199,124 persons who were born in Italy. Some of the first Italians who choose Lebanon as a place to settle and find refuge were Italian soldiers from the Italo-Turkish War from 1911 to 1912. Instead, because of emigration earlier in the century, there were only 54,000,000.[116]. According to the available statistics, the community of Italian citizens residing abroad amounts to 4,600,000 people (2015 data). The Italians of Crimea are a small ethnic minority residing in Crimea. By Kerry Kolasa-Sikiaridi. At the 2021 census, 1,108,364 Australian residents nominated Italian ancestry (whether alone or in combination with another ancestry),[112] representing 4.4% of the Australian population. Nowadays, it is possible to find millions of descendants of Italians, from the southeastern state of Minas Gerais to the southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul, with the majority living in So Paulo state[90] and the highest percentage in the southeastern state of Esprito Santo (60-75%). display: none; "I think it . oneSignal_options['notifyButton']['enable'] = true; The government also found that if it wanted immigrants it had to subsidize migration. In this period, the decrease in non-European immigration led to an increase in European flows, towards France (the favorite destination of the opponents of the regime) and Germany (after the signing of the Pact of Steel). [14] In Turin this migratory peak was exacerbated by FIAT, which carried out a recruitment campaign where 15,000 migrants from the south were hired. [39] This was in return for their service as money lenders to the crown, which helped finance the Welsh Wars. An Assisted Passage Scheme was introduced in 1951, whereby the Australian Government paid for fares and accommodation (in migrant camps such as Bonegilla and Greta) in return for several years of employment. Emigrants were often in the hands of emigration agents whose job was to make money for themselves by moving emigrants. [150] The reasons were therefore the same as those that pushed millions of Italians to emigrate abroad. OneSignal.SERVICE_WORKER_PATH = "OneSignalSDKWorker.js.php"; The first major influx of Italian migrants came with the goldrush in Victoria. Indeed, the Genoese dialect was spoken in Catalan Bay well into the 20th century, dying out in the 1970s. Identify information in the sources that provides information about the life experiences of one person who migrated to Australia in the 1800s: a. mother with small children. But we say New Yawk I hope you enjoyed. A "Little Italy" strives essentially to have a version of the country of Italy placed in the middle of a large non-Italian city. The Unification of Italy broke down the feudal land system, which had survived in the south since the Middle Ages, especially where land had been the inalienable property of aristocrats, religious bodies or the king. [14] Registrations at city registry offices in the industrial triangle tripled, from 69,000 new arrivals in 1958 to 183,000 in 1963, and to 200,000 in 1964. Greek Immigration Australia. Following these ancient migrations, in some municipalities of Sicily and Basilicata, dialects of northern origin are still spoken today, the Gallo-Italic of Sicily and the Gallo-Italic of Basilicata. Mangone Family Schipani Family Visit Our Shop Podcast Click here to join our group on Facebook Video Check out my book Farmers and Nobles On this site or Amazon and Kindle Constantina Tulelli and Nicola Opipari marriage record 6th GGF Medical Acknowledgement:Degree Grandpa Apollo Norman Tower in Zagarese Paolo Emilo Tulelli papers referring to, Italian Genealogy has the Best Posts and Links Whether you are a seasoned veteran or just beginning you research, we have the Best Italian Research Blog. They pretty much had enough of all of the crap of a European war, so they decided to have a go by emigrating to a country half way around the world . In the 19th and 20th centuries, nearly 30 million Italians left Italy to the Americas, Australia and Western Europe as their main destinations. /* General CSS */.container{width:2972px}/* Header CSS */#site-header.top-header .oceanwp-social-menu,#site-header.top-header #search-toggle{height:52px}#site-header.top-header #site-navigation-wrap .dropdown-menu >li >a,#site-header.top-header .oceanwp-mobile-menu-icon a{line-height:52px}#site-header,.has-transparent-header .is-sticky #site-header,.has-vh-transparent .is-sticky #site-header.vertical-header,#searchform-header-replace{background-color:#000000}#site-header{border-color:#636363}#site-header.top-header .header-top,#site-header.top-header #searchform-header-replace{background-color:#000000}#site-header.has-header-media .overlay-header-media{background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0.5)}.effect-two #site-navigation-wrap .dropdown-menu >li >a.menu-link >span:after,.effect-eight #site-navigation-wrap .dropdown-menu >li >a.menu-link >span:before,.effect-eight #site-navigation-wrap .dropdown-menu >li >a.menu-link >span:after{background-color:#ffffff}.effect-six #site-navigation-wrap .dropdown-menu >li >a.menu-link >span:before,.effect-six #site-navigation-wrap .dropdown-menu >li >a.menu-link >span:after{border-color:#ffffff}.effect-ten #site-navigation-wrap .dropdown-menu >li >a.menu-link:hover >span,.effect-ten #site-navigation-wrap .dropdown-menu >li.sfHover >a.menu-link >span{-webkit-box-shadow:0 0 10px 4px #ffffff;-moz-box-shadow:0 0 10px 4px #ffffff;box-shadow:0 0 10px 4px #ffffff}#site-navigation-wrap .dropdown-menu >li >a,.oceanwp-mobile-menu-icon a,#searchform-header-replace-close{color:#ffffff}#site-navigation-wrap .dropdown-menu >li >a:hover,.oceanwp-mobile-menu-icon a:hover,#searchform-header-replace-close:hover{color:#ffffff}#site-navigation-wrap .dropdown-menu >.current-menu-item >a,#site-navigation-wrap .dropdown-menu >.current-menu-ancestor >a,#site-navigation-wrap .dropdown-menu >.current-menu-item >a:hover,#site-navigation-wrap .dropdown-menu >.current-menu-ancestor >a:hover{color:#ffffff}#site-navigation-wrap .dropdown-menu >li >a{background-color:#207a1c}#site-navigation-wrap .dropdown-menu >li >a:hover,#site-navigation-wrap .dropdown-menu >li.sfHover >a{background-color:#cc7370}#site-navigation-wrap .dropdown-menu >.current-menu-item >a,#site-navigation-wrap .dropdown-menu >.current-menu-ancestor >a,#site-navigation-wrap .dropdown-menu >.current-menu-item >a:hover,#site-navigation-wrap .dropdown-menu >.current-menu-ancestor >a:hover{background-color:#1a4c16}.dropdown-menu .sub-menu,#searchform-dropdown,.current-shop-items-dropdown{background-color:#000000}.dropdown-menu ul li a.menu-link{color:#f7f7f7}/* Sidebar CSS */.widget-area{background-color:#ffffff}.widget-area .sidebar-box{background-color:#ffffff}.widget-title{border-color:#548909}/* Footer Widgets CSS */#footer-widgets{background-color:#000000}#footer-widgets,#footer-widgets p,#footer-widgets li a:before,#footer-widgets .contact-info-widget span.oceanwp-contact-title,#footer-widgets .recent-posts-date,#footer-widgets .recent-posts-comments,#footer-widgets .widget-recent-posts-icons li .fa{color:#b7b537}#footer-widgets .footer-box a,#footer-widgets a{color:#eeee22}/* Typography CSS */body{font-family:Lato}h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,.theme-heading,.widget-title,.oceanwp-widget-recent-posts-title,.comment-reply-title,.entry-title,.sidebar-box .widget-title{font-family:Macondo Swash Caps;font-weight:700;color:#dd0000;line-height:3;letter-spacing:1.2px}#site-navigation-wrap .dropdown-menu >li >a,#site-header.full_screen-header .fs-dropdown-menu >li >a,#site-header.top-header #site-navigation-wrap .dropdown-menu >li >a,#site-header.center-header #site-navigation-wrap .dropdown-menu >li >a,#site-header.medium-header #site-navigation-wrap .dropdown-menu >li >a,.oceanwp-mobile-menu-icon a{font-family:Nobile;text-transform:uppercase}.sidebar-box,.footer-box{font-family:Bubblegum Sans;text-transform:capitalize}. Future Fascist leader Benito Mussolini emigrated to Switzerland in 1902, only to be deported after becoming involved in the socialist movement. [96] For example, Hamilton, Ontario, has around 24,000 residents with ties to its sister city Racalmuto in Sicily. Italian migration to Australia in the late 19th century and much of the 20th century was fueled by the same factors that drove Italians to the Americas political upheaval and poor economic conditions at home. The regions most active in receiving internal immigrants are Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany and Umbria. European Refugee Movements After World War Two - Logo of the BBC Italian Australian Immigration Stories in 1950s Facts - The Travel Tart Although many do not speak Italian fluently, over a million still speak Italian at home, according to the 2000 US Census.[101]. [45] The very large number of emigrants from Friuli Venezia Giulia, a region with a population of only 509,000 in 1870 until 1914 is due to the fact that many of those counted among the 1.407 million emigrants actually lived in the Austrian Littoral which had a larger polyglot population of Croats, Friulians, Italians and Slovenes than in the Italian Friuli. 20th century - Why did so many Italians emigrate to Argentina Top 8 Reasons People Migrate To Australia Between the 12th and 15th centuries, the Italian Republic of Genoa had some Genoese colonies in Beirut, Tripoli, and Byblos. My family on both sides were typical of what happened to many families in post World War 2 Italy. [3] Poverty was the main reason for emigration, specifically the lack of land as mezzadria sharecropping flourished in Italy, especially in the South, and property became subdivided over generations. */ [61] The Italian emigrant community continues to increase both for new departures, and for internal growth (enlargement of families or people who acquire citizenship by descent). function r(a,b,c){b=void 0===b? Rome: Cser, These Lombard colonisers were native northern Italians and should not be confused with the Germanic tribe the, Genoese community has existed in Gibraltar, Venice ruled Corfu and the Ionian islands, Statistiche relative all'elenco aggiornato dei cittadini italiani residenti all'estero (AIRE), History of the Italian Americans in Philadelphia, History of the Italian Americans in Metro Detroit, Italian Canadians in the Greater Toronto Area, Little Italy in Clerkenwell, Islington, London, legislation to the citizens of Italian peninsula, "Sono circa 80 milioni gli oriundi italiani nel mondo", "Italian Immigration - The Great Italian Diaspora", "Rome: the National Museum of Italian Emigration | Trips 2 Italy", "Italiani all'estero, sempre pi giovani e settentrionali: +7,6% nel 2015", "L'emigrazione interna italiana negli anni '50 e '60", "Una indagine CATI per lo studio della mobilit interna in Italia in un'ottica longitudinale", "The Italian Minority of Crimea: History of a Diaspora between Emigration and Deportation", "Alessandro Vincenzi Forgotten Italians | Imp Festival", "Italiani perseguitati da Stalin e poi dimenticati", "La tragedia dimenticata degli italiani di Crimea - Come vivono i 300 tra deportati e loro discendenti", "Rosselli: The Genoese community of Gibraltar", "Napoleon I (emperor of France) Britannica Online Encyclopedia", Project MUSE Renaissance Quarterly Savonarola in Francia: Circolazione di un'eredit politico-religiosa nell'Europa del Cinquecento (review), "Emigrazione Italiana: il pi grande esodo della Storia Moderna - emigrati.it", "What Drove the Mass Migrations from Europe in the Late Nineteenth Century? In 1976, Uruguayans with Italian descent amounted to over 1.3 million (almost 40% of the total population, including the Italo-Argentines residing in Uruguay).[81]. [80] A number of Italian navigators and explorers in the employ of Spain and France were involved in exploring and mapping their territories, and in establishing settlements; but this did not lead to the permanent presence of Italians in America. They were called "tanos" from Neapolitan. var oneSignal_elements = document.getElementsByClassName("OneSignal-prompt"); [143] It is believed that the population of Northern Italy who immigrated to Sicily during in these centuries was altogether about 200,000 people. A small group came from Crimea and the Genoese colonies in the Black sea, after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. 'jetpack-lazy-images-js-enabled' In the early-1880s, epidemics of cholera also struck the city, causing many people to leave. Unlike Australia, New Zealand did not receive much immigration from Italy. After the unification of Italy in 1861, there was a notable emigration from Italy to Uruguay that peaked in the last decades of the 19th century, when over 110,000 Italian emigrants arrived. Other notable examples of Italians that played a major role in the history of France include Cardinal Mazarin, born in Pescina was a cardinal, diplomat and politician, who served as the chief minister of France from 1642 until his death in 1661. [4], Between 1860 and World War I, 9 million Italians left permanently of a total of 16 million who emigrated, most travelling to North or South America. [29] Today, the descendants of the Genoese community of Gibraltar consider themselves Gibraltarians and most of them promote the autonomy of Gibraltar. This process often separated families for five, ten or in some cases, twenty years. The suburbs of Naples teem with children who, in number, can only be compared to those found in Delhi, Agra and other cities of the East Indies ".[50]. Prior to migration, most Italians would not have been outside their own village precinct. This includes a Resource Centre, an extensive cultural program of events, Italian language programs for adults and children, support for schools and school teachers, as well as travel services for individuals and groups. Large numbers of Italians have resided in Germany since the early Middle Ages, particularly architects, craftsmen and traders. Italian immigrant family at Ellis Island Although Italy as a unified nation did not exist until 1861, the Italian peninsula has sent millions of its people to the shores of North America.