Italy's Many Diasporas (review)

Italy's Many Diasporas. By Donna R. Gabaccia (Seattle, University of Washington Press, 2000) 264 pp. $40.00 cloth $22.00 paper

Gabaccia surveys the dispersion of residents of the Italian peninsula and adjacent islands over time to other European countries, North and South America, and Africa. Her recurrent theme is that historically Italians have lacked a common culture, language, and government, and that therefore regional, city, and village identities have always trumped any unifying concept of nationhood. Hence, one must distinguish among many Italian diasporas, taking into account place of origin and differences in class, culture, occupation, and language or dialect. These variables, in turn, must be analyzed against templates of time, destination, and the conditions that existed then and there.

Gabaccia describes Italians as being "among the most migratory of peoples on earth" (1). Her diasporas encompass about 28 million people over eight centuries. That sum does not include migrants within Italy (such as Sicilian or Calabrian peasants moving to the industrialized Po Valley); nor does it exclude the huge number of remigrants to Italy. The United States was the goal of the largest number of migrants from Italy, though neighboring European countries (especially France, Switzerland, and Germany) collectively attracted more during every time period.

The author has organized these complexities chronologically, beginning with merchants, artists, clerics, and students--agents of "civilta italiana" who migrated within Europe during the Renaissance--followed by later elites (chiefly champions of the Italian Risorgimento), who sought to instill nationalism among peasants and workers at home and abroad. Such early movements were a mere trickle compared to the flood of workers who, after the unification of Italy in 1870, sought economic security in a global labor market, especially in France, the United States, Brazil, and Argentina.

Gabaccia tackles gender variations, the role of the padrone and the government, return migration (and its effects on Italian affairs), immigrant institutions, labor strife, and, above all, the persistence of immigrant identification with, and love for, birthplace or village--patria or paese. The final chapters emphasize the relationship of fascism to Italy's diasporas, the huge influx of Italian workers into France, Switzerland, and Germany in the postwar world, and, finally, the transformation of Italy as a nation that today receives more migrants than its sends beyond its borders.

Although Gabaccia has previously demonstrated a mastery of primary sources, her topic in this book is so vast and so synthetic that reliance on secondary materials is necessary and probably preferable. Inevitably, she has drawn mostly on works in the English and Italian languages, but her command of relevant publications in French and German is also apparent.

Lucidly written and effectively organized, this book is a splendid accomplishment. Its essence is interdisciplinary; the study of diasporas necessarily blends variables of time, space, and culture. Unfortunately, the spatial dimension and its ramifications are underdeveloped; this deficiency is marked most obviously by a lack of maps. A greater attention to the many effects of technology on patterns of migration would have been helpful.

Frederick C. Luebke
University of Nebraska, Lincoln

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