Italian Migration and Entrepreneurship's Origins in the United States of America. A Business History Analysis from the Post Second World War Period to the Present Day

Vittoria Ferrandino and Valentina Sgro

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to demonstrate how the Italian migration in the United States has encouraged entrepreneurship in the USA and in Italy, helping to intensify the commercial relations between the two Countries, also by starting a business on American territory. That is a goal also pursued by Italian governments since the Eighties of the nineteenth century, considering that already in 1888, the former Prime Minister, Francesco Crispi, sent a circular to the Italian consulates in America, in which he indicated how the transoceanic migration could turn in favour of the Italian economy. The first fifteen years of the twentieth century marked the peak of Italian immigration: about three and a half million Italians landed in the United States, especially at Ellis Island, although the rate of return from the U.S., during these years, remained high (about 50%). Temporary immigrants, mostly young men of peasant origin, but among them there were also a significant minority of artisans (less than 20%). Few of them had some education or owned their own capital and very few were traders and merchants. Although all the Italian regions were represented, four-fifths of the Italian immigrants came from southern Italy, particularly from Calabria, Campania, Abruzzo, Molise and Sicily. The 20% of Italian immigrants (about 900.000) came from Northern and Central Italy. Italian peasants, once settled definitively, showed great entrepreneurial skills and initiative. Barber shops and tailoring, sculpture workshops and construction companies proliferated, extending their customs beyond the borders of «Little Italy». The paper will focus on some successful migration cases of Italian American businessmen and on the role of the American Chamber of Commerce in Italy, founded in Milan in 1915. Since its establishment, AmCham has been aiming to develop and promote economic and cultural relations between the USA and Italy, to support and protect the interests of its associates’ commercial activities between the two countries. The Archive of the American Chamber of Commerce in Italy in Milan has been a very important source, with its minutes of boards meetings and circular letters, magazines, yearbooks and surveys. Furthermore, different American sources have been partly consulted, such as the National Archive in New York City, the Italian American Studies Association (IASA), the Center for Migration Studies in New York, the New York Public Library, the Italian Cultural Institute of New York and the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce.


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