Global Migration in Transition: The Americas, Europe, and Italian Diaspora (1946-1960)

Abstract

This study investigates the development of post-WWII Italian migration to Argentina, Belgium, Canada, and The U.S. and it frames this case-study within the broader discussion about he ways in which past population movements inform contemporary migration, and how their study can help us make better sense of current immigration debates. Chapter 1 provides a narrative introduction of the position that postwar Italian migration occupies in the overall history of Italy as a country of emigration between 1876 and 1976. Chapter 2 tackles the complex issue of periodizing migration in world history, and argues that we need to rethink prevailing depictions of the years between 1946 and 1960 as a period of limited migration. Chapter 3 provides a quantitative exploration of Italian migration in the first and second era of globalization. Chapter 4 discusses the introduction of migratory regulations in the post-WWII period, with a focus on the emigration policy of the Italian government and the immigration policy of the Belgian government. Chapter 5 focuses on the nature and character of immigration policies in Canada and the United States after the Second World War and their impact on the development of the Italian flow. Chapter 6 discusses the Argentine case as an example of what migration policies cannot explain. Chapter 7 traces the evolution of the Italian migration "problem" from a national to an international concern in the context of the Cold War by focusing on two attempts at developing a system of international cooperation for migration in the late 1940s and early 1950s: the NATO Working Group on Labor Mobility and the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration.