Italian women during the first wave of migration in North America

Summative Project

Italian women during the first wave of migration in North America

The classic phenomenon has created the Italian diaspora, an involuntary migration of a group of people away from home in the same area. The push factors were deep poverty, difficult agricultural conditions, and political persecution. On the other hand, North America seemed to be the perfect land to prosper and work as they needed people to expand and build countries. Italians decided to leave everything they ever knew to try to find a better life for their families. During the first wave, most of the time men were the ones who left the homeland and risked their lives. Women were to remain at home with their families and wait on the men to come back. But we don't talk enough about the women who left Italy with their husbands or alone to try to find a new life there. Also, about those who stayed in the homeland and had to manage alone what the men did. Their roles have taken a completely different turn whether in North America or Italy. Immigration has changed the lives of Italian women, but those women have also transformed the migration process. Italian women have had a huge impact in the development of the first wave. In this essay, I will explore the relationship between women, family, responsibilities, and work. Specifically, I will argue that women have shaped migration process.

1. Role as women, wives, and mother

1. Concept of family and settlement

Women have had an important role in the migration process. Men who have migrated didn’t create a real community there. We have to wait for women's arrival to see a shift in the migration settlement. Women brought with them a part of Italy and changed the future of migration. They were not just looking for remittances for the homeland but for a new life as a settlement. With the “arrival of women, immigrant homes were established, creating a foundation for family life and community building” (Vecchio, 2006, 123). Before them, this concept didn’t exist, and they created a way to get closer and have a real community. Conditions weren’t the same as in the homeland, but women incorporated into their new life the possibility to build something bigger. It was no longer about making money but about creating a life and a future together. Their role in that case was to reunite their families and move forward together in this adventure. The change was enormous and difficult to handle alone. Women and men had two different roles in this migration process. Women had a “central role of the family as agent of adaptation to the new socioeconomic realities of the host society” (Ramirez, 2016, 25). Indeed, this new land was more prosperous than Italy and the habits were different and unusual for them. Their role was to adjust the shift by adapting to their new life while keeping their Italian traditions. They didn’t just act for their family but for the Italian community. In fact, the concept of family is strong in Italy and constitutes a major value. It was primordial to bring it into this new land. The concept of family was not just with your parents and children but with the community as they all discovered North America and the unknown that it represented. Their role was also to keep the links between the community tight. They have allowed the advancement of a real settlement by linking old and new migrants. “Many single migrants who never intended to remain in the United States did so because of matchmaking efforts by Italian women, who introduced daughters of earlier migrants to newer immigrants from their paese” (Vecchio, 2006, 125). With this method, Italian women were able to manage and validate unions to consolidate their development and settlement. All these responsibilities ended up building a real community and Little Italy. This concept of Little Italy is strong as it represents the centre of the strength of Italian migrants. Italian women did not just join their husbands but had a role “at the centre of wide networks of family, kin, and paesani” (Lacovetta, 1992, 85). They were the ones who made possible the expansion of Italian migrants in North America over the long term. Their different roles as women, mothers and wives were crucial and respected.

2. Kinship: communal and homeland – America’s links

Family is not the only factor that Italian women had to handle. Indeed, the migration process was rhythmed by transfer from the homeland to North America. One of the biggest women’s responsibilities was kinship responsibility. Information and referral to services and resources that will help the family meet its needs. They linked the two land and had an important role as decision-makers. Indeed, they “played a central role in family strategies as the decision to emigrate” (my translation) (Martinelli, 2003, 152). Therefore, their role was not just to build a family in North America but it started in the homeland. They had real importance in the choice of the future of their families and paesi. Also, once the first men have migrated, they have control over who will join them. Italian women were the ones to handle the communal links. The goal was to leave to prosper but not to abandon those remaining in the country. The “central role of women both in supporting the emigration of men and in maintaining country economies in Italy” (my translation) (Martinelli, 2003, 151). Italian women whether in North America or Italy had the responsibility to maintain the link within the community in the homeland. Their role was essential to keep the link with those who remained in Italy. Indeed, women had the huge responsibility of building a social network and being a bridge between the two lands. The migration process could not remote the values of family and kinship. Despite this new settlement, the particularity of the Italian migration is to have been massive and to have imported its values, mostly thanks to Italian women. “Immigrant women facilitated the maintenance of social relationships between members of their home villages and newly constructed communities in America” (Vecchio, 2006, 130). They acted as mediators between the two lands while adapting to the new life. It was all about maintaining social and cultural traditions to facilitate the transition. Italian women were the connections between the homeland and North America to avoid isolation and to enforce the community feeling. They played a critical role for both the Italian community and family in the adjustment to a foreign land.

3. Migration as family, alone or white widows

Family, communal links, and kinship built the migration process, but women were not just a central

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