As immigration in the U.S. reached its peak in the late 1800s/early 1900s, one of the notable groups who immigrated to the U.S. were Italians. Even though Italy had just been unified by one flag, the living conditions there were characterized by violence, chaos, and extreme poverty. Many Italians took immigration to the U.S. as a last resort to find a better life and fulfill the American Dream. By the end of the 1920s, approximately 4 million Italians had immigrated to the United States, which represented more than 10% of the foreign population living in the U.S.
The main destination for Italians who made it to the U.S. was Ellis Island, where they would receive their passports and be examined for any disease or anomalies. Due to the fact that most of the Italian population was concentrated around New York City, many Italian neighborhoods which would be known as "Little Italy's" would emerge as a result. One of the largest Little Italy's was directly in New York City, with a population of 10,000 Italians in just two square miles. Little Italy's where characterized by having a completely different culture and created diversity by bringing in new food and customs to the U.S. Just like many other immigrant populations though, Italians had to face the hardships of difficult, poorly paid labor along with leaving their culture & possibly families behind.
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3 comments:
I like that you tied your blog back to your heritage and wrote about Italian immigration into the US. It is interesting to learn about the groups of immigrants that arrived and how they were forced to adjust to American life.
It is interesting how many nationalities came over to America in one large wave, like the Italians or the Irish, and then set up a culture in their own little enclave. It is also important to note how Italians were discriminated against, like how despite being Caucasian they often did not fit the WASP limitations, and so were not considered "white" or American.
The Italians were instrumental for creating the ubiquitous tradition of pizzerias that we have today. The concept of pizza was brought over by Italian immigrants within the late 19th century. Diffusing out from Ellis islands, pizza began to take hold of cities like New York, Boston, and Chicago, which were cities dense with Italian immigrants. In 1905 Gennaro Lombardi opened the first pizzeria in New York and it would take around 3 decades before the entire United States was covered with pizza places. Another 3 decades later the first pineapple pizza was invented in Canada.
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