Back to home page

1994 - VOLUME 31, NUMBER 113

95.50.1 - Italian - Stefano BALDI Italians in Tanzania, past and present (Gli italiani in Tanzania, ieri e oggi) (p. 2-41)

This article describes and examines the presence of Italians in Tanzania since the end of last century. The numbers in question are very low, but the historical analysis allows for the identification of their sources and the reasons behind this constant flow of Italians towards Tanzania. At the end of the 19th century, the first contacts were sporadic (explorers or traders) and with the missionaries, after the First World War, a first group of Italians settled in Tanzania. Following the Second World War, the settlers began to gain ground in agriculture and the services while, more recently, it has been co-operative projects which have mainly had a determining effect on the number and characteristics of the Italians living in Tanzania. The author attempts to discover the various components of the Italian community and their respective roles: religious institutions, associations and NGOs. He also attempts to sketch a specific methodology for analysing small colonial communities. (TANZANIA, ITALY, IMMIGRANTS, HISTORY)

95.50.2 - English - William DOUGLAS, University of Nevada, Reno (U.S.A.) "Trionfo" in Ingham. The Italian community in North Queensland (p. 43-63)

The author describes the settlement and adaptation of Italian immigrants in the town of Ingham (North Queensland). Recruited during the 1890s for the sugar industry as a "white" alternative to the coloured labour originating in the Pacific Islands, the Italians had as many opponents amongst the Anglo-Australians as they had defenders. Ingham, the Queensland town which had the highest proportion of Italians in its population, proved to be the most tolerant. And yet, even there, a century of Italo-Australian history was punctuated by a stiff struggle for employment in the sugar cane plantations and for farming land ownership, by inter-ethnic crimes, violent clashes between the Fascists and their enemies and by the large-scale imprisonment of Italians during the Second World War. (AUSTRALIA, ITALY, IMMIGRATION, HISTORY)

95.50.3 - English - Frank SALAMONE, Iona College, New Rochelle, NY (U.S.A.) Power and dominance in Sicilian households in Rochester, N.Y. (Louis Street Center) (p. 64-90)

This study deals with the relationship between power and hierarchy in order to demonstrate that the European peasantry of olden times was not the powerless victim it was made out to be. The author explores the period when Sicilian immigrants were settling in Rochester (N.Y.) prior to 1940. He maintains that, through the Louis Street Center, a community services and education centre, the immigrant women clearly succeeded in increasing and managing their power. The Americanization of the Italian household modified the relationships between men and women, but this trend followed the lines that were already present, even if they were not very clear, in the context of Southern Italy. (UNITED STATES, ITALY, HISTORY, WOMEN'S STATUS, IMMIGRANTS)

95.50.4 - Italian - Giuseppe SCIDA, Universita di Bologna, Via Zamboni 33, 40126 Bologna (Italy) Social networks in the Senegalese migration process: Three research paths (Social networks nelle migrazioni senegalesi: tre itinerari di ricerca) (p. 91-106)

This presentation of a research file on Senegalese migration emphasises the fact that the following three articles, while each having been written independently from the others, introduce, if they are read in their given order, a time and space dimension to the phenomenon which would not be noticed otherwise if they were all read separately. These three studies were collected together to highlight a specific analytic perspective, that is, to concentrate attention on immigrants' social networks. According to the migrants' spatial mobility, the degree of adaptation which they have achieved over time and the cultural specificity of the host regions, the three articles show how the immigrants reconstruct their traditional networks in partially adapted shapes and functions, unless new social networks, or at least in a latent form, do not superimpose themselves. (SENEGAL, INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, SOCIAL ORGANIZATION)

95.50.5 - Italian - Carlo DE ROSE Family and migration strategies in the Senegal basin (Famiglia e strategie migratorie nel bacino del Senegal) (p. 107-132)

Since the 1950s, the emigration of rural populations from the neighbouring areas of the Senegal River have increased without a halt. The two ethnic groups which are most affected by migration are the Soninké and the Toucouleur. The author compares the migration patterns of the two ethnic group and finds that the differences lie mainly in the duration and destination of their movements. They are examined in relation to the family subsistence strategies, to the multiple nature of activities and to the system of social links which grows between the emigrant and his family or the community of origin. The study uses data from a survey undertaken in 1991 and 1992 on 3,400 rural families from 57 villages. (SENEGAL, RURAL POPULATION, EMIGRATION, ETHNIC GROUPS, COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS)

95.50.6 - Italian - Giuseppe SCIDA, Universita di Bologna, Via Zamboni 33, 40126 Bologna (Italy) Between charisma and business: A Muslim fraternity in an immigrant situation (Fra carisma e clientelismo: una confraternita musulmana in migrazione) (p. 133-157)

This research, which is based on biographies collected through interviews with Senegalese immigrants arriving, in the main, recently in Catania, shows the great capacity that this group has to reconstruct its traditional type of social network, in this case the Muslim fraternity known as Muriddiyya. This trait of the Senegalese immigrants, aided and abetted by other interacting determinants (such as the relationship between several households through a community centre, the sharing of common employment - peddling, belonging to the Tariga Murid and actively participating in it) explains that this group has remained free of all criminality. But the progressive weakening of the influence of its charismatic leaders and the upsurge of businessmen, who have a strong hold over all the members of the fraternity, are making various evolutionary scenarios possible in the future. (ITALY, SENEGAL, IMMIGRANTS, SOCIAL ORGANIZATION, SOCIAL CHANGE)

95.50.7 - Italian - Silvana CECCONI Senegalese associations in Genoa and Milan (Le associazioni senegalesi di Genova e Milano) (p. 158-179)

The subject of this study is the role of associations in the Senegalese communities of Genoa and Milan. The main function of these associations is to act as a bridge between the immigrant groups and their new society: the non-denominational associations direct their activities mainly towards Italian society, while the religious Dahira associations are basically directed towards the country of origin and towards the Senegalese community itself. Preserving ethnic identity is not in contradiction with the active and constructive integration of foreign citizens into Italian society. The author held long interviews with the chiefs of these associations and submitted a questionnaire to 100 Senegalese members of the Murid association. Perfect integration into the host society is still far from being achieved, but a clear tendency towards adhering to positive and "functional" integration and participation can be observed, with the two types of association - religious and non-denominational - undertaking different, but complementary, types of action. (ITALY, SENEGAL, IMMIGRANTS, SOCIAL ORGANIZATION, MIGRANT ASSIMILATION)

1994 - VOLUME 31, NUMBER 114

95.50.8 - English - Sarah COLLINSON, Royal Institute of International Affairs, London (U.K.) Toward further harmonisation? Migration policy in the European Union (p. 210-237)

The current aspect of migration policy in Europe would seem to point to the appearance of a complex mosaic of co-operative agreements, not only in terms of relationships between the member States of the Union and third countries, but also within the Union itself. Several areas of co-operation are appearing, with the best integration being achieved in the sphere of policies aimed at achieving the construction of the internal market and at facilitating the functions of the European Economic Space. The integration of wider spheres of immigration policy, hampered by the various interests of the member States in this respect and by their anxiety to preserve their national sovereignty on these issues, would appear to be condemned to be slower and less complete. Co-operation in this field will probably continue to be administered by intergovernmental relations until the harmonisation of policies in certain sectors (such as the policy for accepting requests for political asylum) is sufficiently advanced for its transfer to the Union to no longer raise any major problems. But, for the time being, the member States still have different interests, in particular if the Union accepts new members. (WESTERN EUROPE, MIGRATION POLICY)

95.50.9 - Italian - Bichara KHADER, Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Arabe Contemporain, Lovanio Mediterranean migration: The health cordons and refusal of others (Le migrazioni nel Mediterraneo: i cordoni sanitari e il rifiuto dell'alterità) (p. 238-250)

This article deals with the reasons behind the "xenophobic" reactions growing in Europe towards immigrant North African populations. Apart from traditional explanations (economic and social crisis, the identity crisis after the fall of the Berlin wall), the author discusses the difficulty of being "different" in a Western culture, particularly when this "different" means Oriental, Arab and Muslim, i.e., the person who, in Western eyes, represents the "intimate enemy" and the "closest difference". (EUROPE, NORTHERN AFRICA, IMMIGRANTS, PREJUDICE)

95.50.10 - Italian - Helen ANDREONI, University of New England, Armidale, NSW (Australia) Italian women in Australian country areas: "A hearth and a heart" (Le italiane nelle campagne d'Australia: "un cuore e una capanna") (p. 251-268)

Using interviews recorded with Italian women in 1991-1992, the article examines the experiences and memories of women living in rural Italian communities in Australia: their specific roles as guardians of the Italian culture and language and their memories of the early settlement years, which were particularly hard during the Second World War when their men were imprisoned. The author believes that, without the often little-known efforts of Italian women, most of these entities would not have been able to survive, from an economic point of view. While the Italian government recognizes the significance of these communities by helping to pay for the teaching of the Italian language, the various Australian governments have awarded very little in the way of resources for teaching English. Many Italian women who live far from the townships are greatly in need of English lessons in order to attenuate their isolation which is aggravated by the onset of old age and by the departure of the younger generations who go to study and work in the large cities. (AUSTRALIA, ITALY, MIGRANT ASSIMILATION, RURAL WOMEN)

95.50.11 - English - Desmond O'CONNOR, The Flinders University of South Australia (Australia) A change of image: The impact of Italy on young second-generation Italians in South Australia (p. 269-283)

The author examines the results of a survey carried out on 45 Italo-Australians aged between 17 and 25 who, generally for the first time in their lives, had just spent some months in Italy. The experience had had a major effect on their previous opinions with regard to their identity or their "Italian-ness", their image of Italy and the attitudes and values of the Italians of today (mainly, the youth) and the Italian community in Australia in which they were brought up. In particular, living for a certain length of time in Italy made them conscious of the gulf between the "Italian-ness" of their families who arrived in Australia in the 50s and 60s and the "Italian-ness" which they themselves began to acquire little by little in Italy through contact with new Italian friends and cousins and Italian contemporary society in general. This revelation and this trend, considered by all to be extremely positive and to be pursued (almost everyone intended returning soon to Italy) should enable these second-generation Italians, who are discovering modern-day Italy and their cultural heritage, to ensure the future vitality of the Italian community in Australia. (AUSTRALIA, ITALY, IMMIGRANTS, SECOND GENERATION MIGRANTS, CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT)

95.50.12 - Italian - Nicodemo MISITI, Centro di Studi Filologici e Linguistici Siciliani, Palermo (Italy)

Social and linguistic aspects of Calabrese emigration to Australia (Aspetti sociali e linguistici dell'emigrazione calabrese in Australia) (p. 285-308)

The author describes the characteristics of Italian emigration from three Calabrese communities to Australia after the Second World War. The social and cultural conditions of the first- and second-generation immigrants are examined, with emphasis on the low cultural level of the first arrivals. The author interviewed 66 Calabrese Italians living in Sydney in order to study their linguistic abilities in English, Italian and their Calabrese dialect. Details are given of the interference and the alterations due to Australian English compared to Italian and to the Calabrese dialect. The author believes that a wider-scale organisation of Italian lessons could help the survival of the immigrants' mother tongue. (AUSTRALIA, ITALY, IMMIGRANTS, NATURAL LANGUAGE, CULTURE)

95.50.13 - Spanish - Marcelino IRIANI, IEHS - UNICEN, Tandil The Basques in the 19th century. The place of America in their plans (Los Vascos en el siglo XIX. América en sus planes) (p. 309-326)

During the 19th century, various internal and external factors had an effect on the Spanish Basque country in such a way as to encourage migration over the oceans. The new ideas which were spreading throughout town and countryside, the wars and agricultural crises, and cultural factors such as the system under which the eldest son inherited everything, were all good reasons for leaving to go abroad. Another reason was the traditional choice of America as country of destination, with the NUMBERus success stories brought back by pioneers and the ever-increasing numbers of emigrants towards one foreign country or another. (SPANISH, ETHNIC GROUPS, EMIGRATION, HISTORY)

1994 - VOLUME 31, NUMBER 115

95.50.14 - English - Russell KING and Brian REYNOLDS Casalattico, Dublin and the fish and chip connection: A classic example of chain migration

The authors of the present article examine a rare case of chain migration between Casalattico, a community in Frosinone province, in central South Italy, and the Irish capital, Dublin. Most of the migrants work in the fish and chip trade in Dublin. The history of this flow has been re-constructed using a few rare documents and the oral tales of the migrants themselves. The context is one of a home region which was very poor and had a long tradition of seasonal chain migration to France and the British Isles. In Dublin, their social integration is of a very low level due to the length of their working day in the fish and chip shops and the migrants' strong family structure. This makes their re-integration easier on their return, for the village they originally came from has always remained the centre of gravity of the emigrants' social life. A survey carried out amongst the emigrants who had returned to their own country shows that a small number turn to farming and the building industry, but most of them have either retired or are semi-retired and are living off their wealth. Although there have been NUMBERus luxury developments built using the emigrants' money, the area's development prospects remain very slight. (ITALY, IRELAND, EMIGRANTS, RETURN MIGRATION, SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONDITIONS)

95.50.15 - Spanish - Dedier Norberto MARQUIEGUI Associations, ethnic leadership and identity in Lujan, 1876-1920: A comparative analysis (Asociacionismo, liderazgo etnico e identidad: un enfoque comparado (Lujan, 1876-1920)

The phenomenon of ethnic associations in Argentina was considered, some years ago, to be one of the most promising and most novel subjects of study. But, with the passing of time, and with only some rare exceptions, this research topic has slowly lost any theoretical pertinence, depth or interest, in such a way that the debate on integration into Argentinian society has become quite repetitive and has lost sight of the original views as formulated in early scientific works. The present article uses the comparative study of five ethnic associations in Lujan, a town situated 70 kms away from Buenos Aires. By studying Lujan's Spanish, Italian and French community associations between 1870 and 1920, the author has revived some of the original points of interest and emphasised the role played by migrant networks before and after migration. (ARGENTINA, IMMIGRANTS, SOCIAL ORGANIZATION, HISTORY, RESEARCH)

95.50.16 - Spanish - Fabiana Sabina TOLCACHIER Israelite associations in Villarino (Asociaciones israelitas en el partido de Villarino)

The author studies the creation and running of some Israelite institutions established during the first quarter of this century in the rural community of Villarino, close to Bahia Blanca in Buenos Aires province. She examines the aims of these associations, their social characteristics, the origins of their members (who had come, in the main, from Russia) and the roles of their elites. The latter were generally heterogeneous, open to collaboration, but divided with regard to the attitude to adopt towards the Sionist project. The aims of the associations were material (medical assistance, establishing a cemetery and a synagogue), and also, cultural and political. Overall, they were not determinants of any isolation of the Jewish community, as proved by the rapid entry of their leaders into local government. (ARGENTINA, JEWS, SOCIAL ORGANIZATION, MIGRANT ASSIMILATION)

95.50.17 - Italian - Rosangela LODIGIANI Migrant women and informal networks (Donne migranti e reti informali)

The economic and social role of women in the migration process has long been underestimated. Recently, the migration of single women has changed the stereotyped image of the subjugated woman, forced to accept the migration choices of her man. This article highlights the active role often played by migrant women, in particular in the social field. In numerous cases, it is the women who create networks between families, friends and in the community in the host country. These informal networks, which are so significant for single female immigrants, benefit the integration of immigrants in the host country. (MIGRATION, WOMEN'S ROLE, SOCIAL ORGANISATION, MIGRANT ASSIMILATION)

95.50.18 - French - Ekkehard W. BORNTRAGER More than two centuries of ethnic continuity: Russian Germans. Historical trends and future prospects (Plus de deux siècles de continuité ethnique : les Allemands de Russie. Evolution historique et perspectives d'avenir)

The German minority has been the most significant example of an ethnic group without its own autonomous territory in the ex-USSR. With some two million people, it was much larger than many other ethnic groups such as the Estonians or Lettonians who, in the meantime, have achieved their independence. For long kept in the background of political reality, the Germans in Russia have, thanks to the recent geopolitical upheaval, landed in the headlines in the media in both Germany and Russia and now occupy a prominent place even in international politics. Without claiming to paint a complete picture nor provide new data, this article attempts to cover the main lines of the historical development of this minority, by highlighting its speficic traits of character and indicating the prospects opening up for its future. The author studies, in particular, the degree to which various proposals of administrative autonomy would offer a plausible alternative to the mass emigration which is gaining ground. (RUSSIA, ETHNIC MINORITIES, EMIGRATION, HISTORY)

1994 - VOLUME 31, NUMBER 116

95.50.19 - Italian - Giovanni PIZZORUSSO and Matteo SANFILIPPO

Inventory of Vatican's sources on immigration history and ethnic groups in the Northern America: Canada, 1878-1922 (Inventario delle fonti vaticane per lo storia dell'emigrazione e dei gruppi etnici nel Nord America: il Canada (1878-1922)) (p. 607-749)

Back to home page