A geographic and social profile of Italy's great migration (1876–1913)

Abstract

This article sheds light on Italian emigration flows with a focus on their geographical origins in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, that is, during the so‐called Great Migration. Annual province‐level data on Italian emigration are analysed in order to reconstruct the regional origins of emigrants, the factors motivating their decisions, their gender, and their literacy levels. The regions generating the largest population outflows were located in the North of the country. Despite the literature's focus on the Italian south diaspora to the US, the main destinations of Italian emigration in this period were other European countries. Explanations focusing on economic factors as emigration drivers prove weak. The provinces generating the greatest outflows do not appear to share any characteristics nor obey any underlying pattern: some tentative explanations concerning provinces of origin will be offered. Data relating to the emigration of women and children point to the central role of nuclear families, displaying a higher rate of growth compared to overall emigration, with peaks during the migration booms to Latin America (1890s) and the United States (1905–1907). No obvious connection emerges between emigrant outflow size and literacy levels: people migrated from the literate North as well as from the more impoverished regions featuring much lower literacy levels.