migration from Sicily to northern Italy

As a nation state, Italy has emerged only in 1871. Until then the country was politically divided into a large number of independant cities, provinces and islands. The currently available evidences point out to a dominant Etruscan, Greek and Roman cultural influence on today's Italians.
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carubia
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migration from Sicily to northern Italy

Post by carubia »

I often find, when I search for the present distribution of an Italian name that is common in Sicily, on a website such as http://www.gens.info, that there is a smaller but still significant cluster of the same surname in Piemonte and Lombardia. I've seen it so many times that it seems unlikely to be a coincidence. Was there a large-scale migration of southern Italians to the north (those 2 regions in particular) in the late 19th or 20th c.?
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PippoM
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Re: migration from Sicily to northern Italy

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Yes, of course there was. It started in the late 19th century, and reached its top from the 50s to the 70s of the 20th. Nowadays is still going on, and whereas it once concerned above all peasants who turned into labourers, it is now more "intellectual"; thousands of graduates migrate center and northward (and now also to Europe, as now it is almost like one country). Just as an example, most of my colleagues here in Roma, who have a degree in Information Technology, Mathematics or Engineering, are from Southern Italy (about 70%, I think).
Giuseppe "Pippo" Moccaldi

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PeterTimber
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Re: migration from Sicily to northern Italy

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The subject on internal migration in Italy and immigration commencing in the very early 1800's from am economic depression in Northern Italy to South America when the agricultural and industrial meat and wool processing revolution occurred in Argentina and Uruguay paved the way for the unification of Italy and absorption of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies leaving millions of Southern Italians destitute and landless only to be summoned to the USA as the country experienced its own Industrial revolution after the American civil war in the late 1800's (my roots). When the recent economic collapse of South America occurred during the last 2 decades we here in the forums experienced a deluge of requests from latin America seeking to obtain Italian citizenship and migrate back to Italy and the EU. Requests for the towns of their ancestors origin made all who were active then in genealogy become familiar with the genealogy records of Argentina , Uruguay , Chile and Peru. Now that education and technology is flourishing in Southern Italy the migration to Northern Italy comes full circle. Just an interesting bit of history. Peter
~Peter~
lumin
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Re: migration from Sicily to northern Italy

Post by lumin »

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jennabet
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Re: migration from Sicily to northern Italy

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PeterTimber wrote:When the recent economic collapse of South America occurred during the last 2 decades we here in the forums experienced a deluge of requests from latin America seeking to obtain Italian citizenship and migrate back to Italy and the EU. Requests for the towns of their ancestors origin made all who were active then in genealogy become familiar with the genealogy records of Argentina , Uruguay , Chile and Peru. Now that education and technology is flourishing in Southern Italy the migration to Northern Italy comes full circle. Just an interesting bit of history. Peter
Ciao Peter. Indeed you are correct. After I obtained my Italian passport in 2001 and returned to Italy, I found several Italo-Argentinians who had recently returned to Italy in my Italian class for immigrants. Of course, we weren't immigrants but we did all receive the same, free language classes. You're also correct about the education and technology flourishing in Southern Italy. For example, Telecom Italia's internet service line was located on Sardinia where all of the Italian technicians spoke fluent English. As of today, I can't say I find that level of English spoken in my region of Abruzzo, although many want to learn.
PeterTimber
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Re: migration from Sicily to northern Italy

Post by PeterTimber »

........By the way I am reading the PhD thesis written for London University on the SETTLEMENT OF VETERANS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE. I thought maybe I can pick up a morsel or two. Peter
~Peter~
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