Walker - 1967 - A geography of Italy

EMIGRATION A N D INTERNAL MIGRATION
was introduced based on the proportion o f immigrants in 1890, when the Italian
contribution was fairly small. By 1931, over 70% o f the 165,000 Itahans who
emigrated in that year went to European coimtries, but even this outlet was
greatly restricted in subsequent years owing to depression conditions in the receiving
states. During the inter-war years the fascist government made a virtue
of necessity and planned to direct surplus population to the colonies. The colonial
armies, pohce forces, finance guards, etc. reduced unemployment, but the number
o f bona fide settlers probably never reached 250,000. The post-war influx of
this colonial population and o f refugees from Venezia-Giulia further aggravated
the employment situation.
Emigration to European countries began again in 1946 both on a temporary
and long-term basis. Since then large numbers o f Itahan workers have been
recruited into the industries o f France, Belgium, Switzerland and Holland,
usually in the heavy and ‘dirty’ sectors - mining, steel, chemicals, building and
construction. An attempt to employ Itahans in the British coal mines was
frustrated by the trade unions at the local level but the brick industry has since
come to rely heavily on their labour. With the building of the Berlin Wall and the
consequent drying-up o f the stream of East German refugees. West German
industry has become increasingly dependent on Itahan immigrants; indeed, in
both Federal Germany and Switzerland it is unlikely that the pace o f economic
expansion could have been sustained without them. It is difficult to estabhsh
accurately the figure at any one time but the total o f Itahan emigrants in western
European countries probably approaches two milhon (1965). Migration on such
a scale inevitably raises serious social problems both in the receiving coimtries
and in the communities from which the emigrants originate; there are many
villages in central and southern Italy where a large part, often a majority, o f the
able-bodied menfolk are absent for all but a few days in the year, while in the
host countries, particularly in Germany and Switzerland, the immigrant does
not easily gain acceptance into the community.
In recent years emigration overseas has become numerically much less important
than that to Europe, and the order o f the receiving coimtries has undergone
a change. For a time after the war the link with Brazil and Argentina was revived
and Venezuela later enjoyed considerable popularity, but in the last decade
Canada and Australia have received many more immigrants than Latin America.
The United States continue to attract as many Itahan immigrants as the quota
restrictions permit. In the years i960, 1961, 1962 the net emigration overseas
from Italy was respectively 60,000, 42,000 and 41,000; in each year the United
States, Canada and Austraha were overwhelmingly the most important receiving
countries. In the same years the comparable figures for Europe were 97,000,
147,000 and 149,000 with Federal Germany, Switzerland and France heading the
hst. The South and to a less extent Veneto supphed by far the largest number o f
migrants both to Europe and overseas.
Emigration is something to which Itahans have become accustomed but an
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