Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Dreams & Diasporas
Emigration to Immigration
Alessio's move abroad echoes that of millions of meridionali (southern Italians). Severe
economic problems in the south following Italy's unification and after each of the world
wars led to massive emigration as people searched for a better life in northern Italy, north-
ern Europe, North and South America, and Australia. Between 1880 and 1910, more than
1.5 million Sicilians alone left for the US, and in 1900 the island was the world's main area
of emigration. In Campania, a staggering 2.7 million people left the motherland between
1876 and 1976.
Today, huge numbers of young southerners - often the most highly educated - continue
to move abroad. This brain-drain epidemic is fuelled by a scandalously high youth unem-
ployment rate - 38.4% in early 2013. Adding insult to injury is Italy's entrenched system of
patronage and nepotism, which commonly makes landing a job more about who you know
than what you know. According to Alessio, the standard of education available is another
contributing factor: 'There's a common belief that southern universities aren't the best, so
parents who can afford it send their kids north or overseas to complete their studies. Some
return after completing their master's degree but many get accustomed to the freedom and
opportunities found in the bigger cities and tend to stay.'
Yet, southern Italy has itself become a destination for people searching for a better life.
Political and economic upheavals in the 1980s brought new arrivals from central Europe,
Latin America and North Africa, including from Italy's former colonies in Tunisia, Somalia
and Ethiopia. More recently, waves of Chinese, Filipino and Sri Lankan immigrants have
given Italian streetscapes an Asian twist.
Today, people of Italian origin account for more than 40% of the population in Argentina and Uruguay,
more than 15% in Brazil, more than 5% in Switzerland, the US and Venezuela, and more than 4% in Aus-
tralia and Canada.
From a purely economic angle, these new arrivals are vital for the country's economic
health. Without immigrant workers to fill the gaps left in the labour market by pickier loc-
als, Italy would be sorely lacking in tomato sauce and shoes. From hotel maids on the
Amalfi Coast to fruit pickers on Calabrian farms, it is often immigrants who take the low-
 
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