Roberto Sala (a cura di), La collettività di origine italiana in Europa occidentale dagli anni 1970 ai giorni nostri / Italian migrant communities in Western Europe from the 1970s to our time

The essays in this issue provide an extensive historical outline of Italian migrants and their descendants in the course of the last decades. Whilst the main focus is the long-term settlement of Italian migrants after the end of the large migration flows during the 1970s in the most important industrialized European countries (Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and France), the current or new mobility is also considered. The first four essays analyse the general development of the social conditions of people of Italian origin in the countries concerned: Rosita Fibbi (Switzerland), Leen Beyers (Belgium), Francesca Sirna (France), Yvonne Rieker and Roberto Sala (Germany). A connection is established between socio-economic aspects - such as the labour market, education and the demographic situation - and the institutional framework as well as the relations to the host society and the image of Italians within this society. The position of Italians  in comparison to other  immigrant communities is another main aspect. There are two further essays that focus on a specific aspect of the Italian presence in some European  countries. Gianni D’Amato considers the processes of social and political integration of Italian residents in France, Switzerland and Germany, taking into account the institutional framework in these different countries. Giovanni Graziano Tassello deals with the  specific role of the Italian Catholic Missions for Italian migrants and their descendants in Europe. The last five essays outline different aspects of the Italians’ life in the respective countries: the literary testimonies that have emerged with regard to Italian migration to Switzerland (Giovanna Meyer Sabino); the relation between migration to Germany and the national affiliation of the migrants to Italy on an analytical and historical level (Roberto Sala). On the background of Italian migration to Belgium, Serge Vanvolsem examines the relation between Italian migrants and language in day-to-day life and school education of their children; Nicolas Perrin and Michel Poulain deal with the case of Italian presence in Brussells. Finally, Salvatore Palidda explains the development of Italian associations in France.

Rosita Fibbi, Italiani in Svizzera: da Tschingg a persone frequentabili / Italians in Switzerland: from “cincali” to respectable people

The 1970s have been characterised in Switzerland by several anti-immigrants initiatives and votes, aimed at pulling out foreign workers - at that time, mainly Italians. This article discusses the way Italians found their way in this country over a thirty-year period, during which the perception of the group radically changed. A demographic introduction sketches the scenario of Italians in Switzerland. Based on existing research, the article goes on to describe the participation of the first generation to the labour market, the changes undergone in their migratory project as well as the peculiar way of life invented by transnational pensioners. It also deals with the highly skilled Italian immigration of the latest ten years. It further portrays second generation youth, the evolution of school and labour market performances of men and women over time. Such changes are duly depicted on the background of the changes in immigration to Switzerland and especially of the admission and integration policies experienced in the last thirty years.

Leen Beyers, ‘Italians’ in Belgium: a unique process of changing positions and identities

This article gives an overview of the massive labour immigration from Italy to Belgium after 1946. Migrants are considered in their economic positions, social-political activities and family networks, not in order to measure the level of ‘integration’, but to understand how opportunities determined by history had affected their trajectories and identities. Very specific for the Italians in Belgium was that they had more opportunities to improve their status, than opportunities to equal economic and political participation. This was due to the quick arrival of a new ethnic underclass, the rise of the European Union and the polarization of the ‘integration’ debate since the economic crisis.
At the same time however, Italians and their descendants suffered from marginal economic positions. There was a line traceable from the marginal economic and spatial positions of the first generation to the difficult educational successes of their children. School trajectories also conditioned personal relationships. They had an impact on how many people of Italian descent continued to rely in later life on their Italian “enclaves” for friendship, leisure, marriage and housing.
The minority that attained higher education mostly withdrew from the Italian quarters where they grew up, and publicly claimed an Italian identity - amongst others, in leftist ethnic militancy. The majority however were discouraged to engage in social-political activism in consideration of the impenetrability of the Belgian political system to non-Belgians, the dividing impact of Italian political parties on Italian associations, as well as their status of well ‘integrated’ migrants.

Francesca Sirna, Italiani in Francia: un’integrazione riuscita? / Italians in France: a successful integration?

France is a traditional destination for Italian migrants. Their presence in France started in the second half of the XIX century. The characteristics of Italian migrations have changed over time, due to the geographic origin, the areas of settlement, the sex and age composition, the kind of activities carried out. In spite of the differences, Italian migration is considered a successful one, that is, “integrated, absorbed immigration" in French society. The essay analyses the evolution of the Italian presence in France between 1970 and 2005, with a particular focus on geographic distribution, the differences between regional groups, migratory paths and the social-professional insertion. Through this analysis, the inner differences within the group of Italian migrants is brought to light: consequently, one should question whether it is correct to speak about Italian immigration in France as a whole. The example of Italians in Provence – based on a qualitative survey comparing the two groups of migrants coming from Piedmont and Sicily - may help to understand the differences within the category “Italian immigrants”, the processes of insertion and the role of the personal networks as channels of access to “opportunities”, and likely element of reduction of the effects of destabilization inherent to migration flows in the years of the oil crisis. The perspective adopted in the article is multidisciplinary, with a particular attention to history and micro history, and the sociological tradition of “mobility studies”. The comparative and micro-analytic dimension allows for a deep analysis of the contexts in which these phenomena of mobility can take place and the factors that determine them.

Yvonne Rieker, Roberto Sala, Italiani in Germania: tra avvicinamento e disagio / Italians in Germany: between inclusion and deprivation

In the course of the 1970s economic crisis , a massive wave of return migration took place among Italian immigrants in Germany. However, a parallel and opposed trend towards permanent settlement led to a certain stabilization. Freedom of movement within the EEC, on the other hand, still provided for constant fluctuation. Those who stayed in Germany in the long run had to face severe difficulties with respect to the labour market. Though they had seen some improvements in social position, Italians were still faced with serious problems, especially regarding their level of education. Despite this fact, they are generally regarded as being fully integrated in German society. This can be attributed to the fact that Germans are on the whole well inclined towards Italians and Italy. In particular, the popularity of Italian restaurants and Italy as holiday destination have played a crucial role in generating this positive image of the Italian community. On the other hand, the same phenomenon also leads to the widespread disregard of the problems many Italians are still facing.

Gianni D’Amato, How the Italians Became Blond! Immigration and Political Rights in France, Switzerland and Germany

The history of Italian migration to the industrialized European neighboring countries is a long one, but also full of many ambiguous and difficult aspects. Appreciated as labor force, Italian migrants were often addressed by open resentments in the local population. Nevertheless, particularly after World War II, their incorporation in European societies took its way. This article argues that the civil and political integration of Italian migrants in France, Switzerland and Germany was shaped according to opportunities offered by the institutional system in the host country. It gives an insight in how institutions – rather than ethnic descent or a common social class - are able to frame the political incorporation of migrants, thus explaining the different outcomes to be observed in the three different nation-states.

Giovanni Graziano Tassello, L’impegno pastorale e sociale delle Missioni Cattoliche Italiane in Europa / The pastoral and social engagement of Italian Catholic Missions in Europe

The history of the Italian Catholic Missions in Europe is still unknown. Migration historians, for ideological reasons, do not analyze the role of the Missions in the life of the migrant communities in Europe.
During the last thirty years, Missions, after having provided a much needed social and economic assistance to migrants, have privileged the field of religious teaching through numerous training projects. At the same time they have searched for their specific role within local churches.
The commitment of the ethnic missions towards a process of communion which does not destroy but rather enhances the cultural and religious traits of migrant communities clashes with the restructuring of the missions for financial reasons. This contrast may lead the migrant communities to fall back into a state of isolation.
The Italian Catholic Missions in Europe have a prophetic role to play within local churches. Their presence reminds local churches to live catholicity and communion in diversity by respecting migrants’ rights even in the religious field.

Serge Vanvolsem, Lingua ed educazione scolastica tra la collettività di origine italiana in Belgio / Issues of language and education among the Italian immigrant community in Belgium

After a short survey of the pre-history of the relations between Italy and Belgium, and the cultural and linguistic consequences of that period (the creation of a cultural background) the paper deals mainly with the language and school problems of Italian migrant workers and their children in Belgium. The focus hereby is not on the first generation Italians - who were mainly dialect speakers -, but on the second (with the typical dygloxy situation, speaking Italian with the parents and Dutch/French with the children), the third (that begins to lose the language and sometimes wants to recover it), and even the fourth - for which the language has ceased to be part of its Italian identity. For many years, Italy did not care too much about the language problems of its citizens abroad, and a system of language courses after regular classes, or by correspondence, was set up in Belgium only in the late fifties. Although those courses have never reached much more than between a fourth and a fifth of the potential candidates, they have provided the indispensable conditions for language maintenance of thousands of immigrants. In the seventies, some interesting programs of multicultural instruction were tried out, especially in Flanders, but they had to face a lot of logistic problems that, after two decennials, limited in a certain way the initial enthusiasm. Another way was the creation of the so called European schools (there are four of them in Belgium) which offer curricula in different mother tongues and have strong language programmes, that lead to real intercomprehension understanding within the group. The impact of those schools however is very limited and their pupils often live rather separated from the rest of the population, as in a restricted elitarian ghettoes.

Nicolas Perrin, Michel Poulain, Les caractéristiques socio-démographiques de la population d’origine italienne de Bruxelles / Socio-demographic characteristics of the Italian population in Brussels

Even if Brussels is not the main centre of settlement for Italians in Belgium, the Italians of Brussels clearly differ from Italians who live elsewhere in that country. During the last years, the dynamism of this population is undeniable in the Belgian capital, whereas the Italian presence is often just presented as a legacy from the past. Definitive Italian immigrations are now rare, but the period of mass returns is over. In Brussels, an intense migratory circulation has been developing including frequent returns, short-term stays that might prefigure the new better-balanced migratory exchange between Italy and Belgium. As a consequence, the Italians of Brussels may be less fixed in the Belgian context than the Italians of the rest of the country, but they show a remarkable ability to keep their Italian identity while taking part in the Belgian society. The young Italians in Brussels often maintain strong ties with the country of their parents and their mother tongue still plays a central role in their every day life. They live in the Belgian environment, but this doesn’t prevent them to claim their Italian identity. As a conclusion, shouldn’t we consider that the Italians still form a foreign community, in the strongest sense of the word?

Salvatore Palidda, L’associazionismo italiano in Francia / Italian associations in France

After discussing some theoretical and methodological aspects regarding the study of the dynamics of sociability and the various forms of aggregation of the emigrants-immigrants, this article proposes a description of the experience of Italians in France. Some elements of comparison with other migratory experiences and a sociological reflection on these people’s history are offered. The dynamics of the Italian associations in France correspond to the changes experienced by our emigrants with regard to both the host and the home society. The boom of such phenomenon is situated during the 1980s, as a consequence of the interaction between various elements: A) the economic and social success of the groups and  their leaders and therefore the need for a social/public gratification in order to maintain such success; B) the end of the French assimilationism, the new liberal development and therefore the beginning of the new mechanisms of the political game – above all at the local level – where being “someone” requires having a social role that comes out on occasion of the anniversary of the Association; C) the value of the relationships with Italian emigrants stressed by the Itallian regions, which stimulate the creation of the regional associations abroad. The more powerful associations, also from the point of view of the social-political weight, are those having a hard kernel, i.e. a very solid group of fellow countrymen. In spite of such dynamics, though, a great future is hardly conceivable for the Italian community in France. The traditional model of generational turnover is not easily adaptable even if “bi-localism” could also have a certain reason for being. France has never experienced a sort of Italian-French or French-Italian intellectual élite, because the intellectuals and artists of Italian origin would label themselves as cosmopolitan or have inclined to mix tout court with the French élite. The Italian associations in France seem therefore doomed to a slow but inevitable dissolution.

Giovanna Meyer Sabino, Emigrazione e creatività: testimonianze letterarie italiane in Svizzera / Immigration and creativity: Italian literary testimonies in Switzerland

The hundreds of thousands of Italian immigrants who for a century, from the mid-800 to the mid 900, have moved to Switzerland have no voice. The succeeding generations have left us neither literary testimonies nor reflections on their migratory conditions. It is indeed only after World War II that we find narrative texts and poetry or documents of lived-life of the Italian community in the Helvetic confederation. Immigration, the cultural shock linked to the impact with a new environment, the nostalgia of the place of origin are at the center of the first writings with some documentary or literary value produced by the immigrants from the 60s onwards. Themes would change over time but preserve some characteristics which can be singled out, such as language – often lived as the only home – the new way of living time and space, the conscience of “elsewhere”, always present, the double cultural belonging or estrangement from the two cultures, the cosmopolitan view and all together the search for roots, a clear critical analysis of the context of origin and destination, and identity as choice, in which diversity is the essential element that forms it and makes it develop.

Roberto Sala, Immigrati nella Germania federale ed appartenenza nazionale all’Italia / Italian Immigrants in the Federal Republic of Germany and their feeling of national identity

In terms of the long-term settlement of `guest workers` in Germany, which occurred from the 1970s onwards, public perception tends to classify these migrants under separate, nationally defined `communities` or `minorities`. This article aims at showing the importance of the controversial, but indeed essential consideration of `Italians in Germany` as a separate category when it comes to historiography. In this context, studies are taken into account, that examine Italian emigration to Germany in a long-term perspective, focusing on the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries as well as the long era of recovery and prosperity which followed the Second World War. Additionally, the importance of Italian migrants’ diverse regional origin will be examined, together with the influence of nationally defined institutions as well as the image of the Italian migrants in German society. Finally, this article will analyse how different social sciences deal with the topic of Italian migration in the FRG.