EXAMINING PATTERNS OF ITALIAN IMMIGRATION TO ...

Between 1880 and 1890 about 268,000 Italians came to the U.S., but many of them
returned and only 183,000 were enumerated in the 1890 census.
Table II. Italian Emigrants departing for the United States between 1876 and 1925.
1876-1879 7,618* 1915-1919 214,759
1880-1884 67,984 1920 349,042
1885-1889 135,005 1921 67,495
1890-1894 216,697 1922 41,637
1895-1899 257,868 1923 51,740
1900-1904 769,269 1924 35,374
1905-1909 1,385,342 1925 29,723
1910-1914 1,265,535 TOTAL 4,895,088
* with Canada
Sources: L’Emigrazione Italiana. Legislazione e Statistiche. Accordi Internazionali. Roma: Remo Sandron
Editore, 1927, Tav. IV.
During the nineties, 604,000 entered the U.S.; only 484,000 appear in the census of 1900. In
the first decade of the nineteenth century, 2,104,000 arrived, but only 1,343,000 were
enumerated in 1910. The pattern changed during the following years. Between 1910 and 1920
1,110,000 arrived and there were 1,610,000 persons of Italian birth in the1920 census. By the
1920s the Italian immigration to the U.S. was a permanent one. It continued in big numbers
until the cut off imposed by the Immigration Quota Act in 1921. In fact, only 455,000 Italians
entered the U.S. during the twenties following the Immigration Quota Act. In 1930 the census
enumerated 1,790,000 Italians. 11
1.5 Reasons for Italian immigration into the U.S.
Several factors caused the boom in the Italian emigration to the United States. First of
all the improvement of national and transatlantic transport facilities made the trip affordable:
at one point it was cheaper to leave for America than to reach Northern Europe. Secondly, the
11 Glazer & Moynihan. Beyond the Melting Pot. Cambridge, Massachussets: The M.I.T. University Press, 1964.
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