Immigration from Italy 1880-1920Second waveLife in Southern Italy:Rome and Naples: the only two cities in Southern ItalySouthern Italian Family:Family is the only institution that Southern Italy recognizes.TRUST NO ONE but your family.Honor – Patriarchal system with a head male who tells everyone what to do.Males live in the outside world. Women stay inside of the home. The first time a woman meets her fiancé is at her wedding.Families fight. One family will declare a vendetta on the other. It is now the other family’s job to rectify this and publicly apologize. This puts the family to shame, and then that family declares a vendetta on the other family for that shame inflicted on them. The cycle continues.A woman practices her honor for her family by keeping her virginity.Marriage:Around age 13, the girl may get to meet and marry her husband. Marriage ceremonies are elaborate, and the bride and relatives make things for the ceremony, like the wedding sheets.After the ceremony, the entire wedding party follows them to the marital chamber, and the women will make the bed with the sheets they made. The women tuck the bride in bed, and the groom comes in. Everyone waits outside. Afterwards, the women take the sheets and hang them in the town square – if there is blood on the sheets, the marriage has been consummated. If no blood, the woman is shunned and there is no marriage.Religion:Roman Catholic Church:TRUST NO ONE!For Southern Italians, the Catholic Church doesn’t exist on a day to day basis. Majority of them only go on an occasional basis.Shrines set up in homes to practice.Rely on herbs and “magic” to cure certain diseases/problems – “magic”Hatched-Matched-Dispatched = Baptism-Marriage-DeathSouthern Italians in America:OverpopulationNatural Disasters – Volcano destroys Pompay. This volcano erupts twice in the century, and destroys the only place for growing crops around the base of the volcano.Taxes (tithes): Southern Italians are forced to pay tithes to the church.Industrial Revolution in the US made it easier for Italians to get jobs in the US, because they needed unskilled workers for the factories.Money:NoneReturn Migration: same as the Chinese – sends over the best candidate for around five years to the US, and then they will come back to Italy.Sojourners “Birds of Flight”SWITCH to Chain Migration rather than Return Migration.Numbers:5 millionOne of the largest immigrant groupsLocation:Ethnic Enclaves: “Little Italy’s” in NYC, Boston, etc.Work:Padrone: person who comes over to the US who knows English (A Southern Italian). He will usually find work for a Southern Italians. Usually he will only represent people from a specific village, or friends of family. A Padrone will get the immigrant a place to live and a job in return for a share of his salary. Resembling the Chinese Six Companies.Women aren’t supposed to leave the house, but need to bring in income for the family. They work at “Sweat Shops”, which is working inside of their own home. A person will bring them raw materials, and they’ll make dresses. They will be paid per product, not hourly. (1900-1920)Tenements:As soon as they switch to Chain Migration, a whole family lives in a tenement.No longer need a padrone.Family:At first a bachelor society.once they start bringing their families over, everything changes.In 1920, the US gave women the right to vote.Italian women start to question things.Children are supposed to go straight into factory work at this time. Most immigrant groups want their children to go to school. Southern Italians don’t like public schools, so they don’t send their kids to schools.Girls and boys typically went in factory work at age three; girls got out of factory work at age ten, and boys were in it for life.Women and children start to assimilate.Mutual Aide Societies:500 in NYC; hundreds also in Boston.Two families get together and come to an agreement that they will help each other out in the US. The Mafia was a mutual aide society in Sicily very early on.The Mafia Myth: The mafia is organized crime: NO! Not at first. The Mafia did not bring organized crime, it was already here. The Mafia is only 3 families not all Southern Italians.Italian Stereotypes:1. Stupidi. Illiteracy rate: 80%2. Peasantsi. Work for free in return for mud hut and food.3. Inferior Racei. “Mongrel”ii. “Dark”iii. “Backward” – women not allowed outside. EVER.4. Violenti. Vendettaii. The MafiaItalian-Americans – 1940s and Beyond…Blue Collar WorkSkilled, still not highly educatedPolice, fireman, waste management, etc.Change in ImageSinatraJoe DiMaggioRosie the RiveterItalian-Americans Today16 million Americans (6%)Other than Spanish, Italian is the 2nd most spoken language.Southern Italians never stopped coming.Ethnic EnclavesLittle Italy in all major citiesDifference between those who live in Ethnic Enclaves to those who don’t.Difference between Nothern and Southern Italians?Immigration Restriction: The Laws!What caused them?Nativism/XenophobiaLoss of powerVoting blocksNumbers:New Immigrants: People who come in during the Second Wave (1880-1920)These are people who don’t want to assimilate because they don’t want to stay in America.They come from the wrong place in Europe – They’re not light skinned or protestant, and are usually poor, catholic, dark skinned, and have weird religions.Come in LARGE numbers, and are mostly return migrations.How many Immigrants are coming? How can we count these immigrants?Creation of Ellis Island – 1892-1954Immigrant Processing Center for at least 12 million New ImmigrantsOne of many processing centers: Angel Island was in existence, and Little Ellis Island’s were set up around the Eastern Shore.Horrific experience in the processing center.Class based system:Officials go on boats, and lead steerage class off. Then they go visit the first and second class. The officials go to every room and count. Then the boat continues to Manhattan.The steerage class will sit and wait to go into Ellis Island.ALL immigrants must book a round trip ticket! If accepted to America, the trip back will be refunded (not for much)The steerage class immigrants are called into Ellis Island in large groups, and go through certain checkpoints: Counting, Sick, Literate, “Where are you from?”No Translators! Officers write their names down and it is usually misspelled or different – but it will be their name in America.Medical