Italian Immigration Struggles

Challenges faced by Italians Struggled after Immigration.
By
Jeremy Lampkin

The ethnic group that I most closely identify with is Italian. The Italians started to immigrate to the United States in 1880. They immigrated to many different areas based on what part of Italy they came from. For example the Sicilians settled in New Orleans while the Neapolitans and Calabrians settled in Minnesota. Italians tended to form enclaves where they settled to feel safer and still be able to practice their traditions. Italians during that time were overwhelmingly catholic and in the United States there were not a lot of places for them to practice their religion. There were some catholic churches but those were run by the Irish and were a different
They did however accept doing odd jobs around the house like domestic servant or as seamstress’s in their home. In the workplace they rose up the ranks because of strong work ethics and reliability. Italian Immigrants had a very high illiteracy rate(70%) because of this they faced a dual labor market. This meant that they had to work low skill, low paying, and easy entry jobs. Without formal education their chances for advancement were slim. Italians were known for being hard working and were mainly blue collar workers. The reason the illiteracy rate was so low was because Italian kids would work as shoe shiners and other little jobs to help bring in money to the household. Italians also suffered from institutional discrimination because at the time of their mass exodus to America, Americans were growing tired of Immigrants working for almost any wage and threatening their own jobs that Unions would not accept Italian workers into their Union. Some grocery stores would not sell groceries to Italians in hopes that they would just leave. A lot of this was due to the fact that Italians had a hard time learning English because they worked so much there was no time for schooling to learn English and to learn American customs. This of course made the locals really dislike them and caused a lot of tension. It is almost the same situation as the Illegal alien’s situation we have going on in America right now. Illegal aliens tend to settle together in an area of the city, they work low playing jobs and peddle fruit on the side of the highways, most of them do not know English and are illiterate. Both faced ignorant stereotypes in the workplace. Shockingly the two situations are not as different as I would have thought. Italians were also subject to a stereotype that still exists to this day and that is their tie to