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Italian Immigrants

After experiencing hardships like poverty, a series of natural disasters, civil war and oppression from Northern Italy the Southern Italians started coming to America in flocks between 1876 and 1976. The most concentrated migrations of Italians happened between 1880 and 1920. Italians came to America not to escape these hardships, but to work and send money home to Italy in order to get their families out of poverty. Seventy percent of Italian immigrants were men and less than ten percent of them worked in agriculture, a sign that their stay in America was a temporary one. While here they worked in factories, construction and opened businesses. Coming to America, Italians were faced with racism, poverty, discrimination, corrupt Padrones and poor living and working conditions. They were Roman Catholics in a country, which was predominantly Protestant. Even the Irish Roman Catholics looked down on the Italians for not being strict or self-sacrificing enough in their religious live...

Posted by: Sean Wilson

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