Editing Italian Americans (section)

===Period of Italian mass immigration (1880–1914)===
{{main|Italian diaspora}}
[[File:Mulberry Street NYC c1900 LOC 3g04637u edit.jpg|thumb|Mulberry Street, along which New York City's [[Little Italy, Manhattan|Little Italy]] is centered. [[Lower East Side, Manhattan|Lower East Side]], circa 1900.]]
[[File:ITALIAN IMMIGRANTS (1905) ELLIS ISLAND NY.png|thumb|Italian immigrants entering the United States via [[Ellis Island]] in 1905]]
[[File:HalstedLittleItalyChicago.jpg|thumb|Little Italy in Chicago, 1909]]

From 1880 to 1914, 13 million [[Italian diaspora|Italians migrated out of Italy]].<ref>{{Cite journal |date=March 1989 |title=APPENDIX A: Italian Immigration to the United States in the Last Twenty Years |journal=Center for Migration Studies Special Issues |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=101–118 |doi=10.1111/j.2050-411x.1989.tb00597.x |issn=2050-411X|doi-access=free }}</ref> During this period of mass migration, 4 million Italians arrived in the United States, 3 million of them between 1900 and 1914.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Italian Immegration to the United States by Years |website=Mount Holyoke College |url=https://www.mtholyoke.edu/~molna22a/classweb/politics/images/italian%20population%20chart%20001.jpg |access-date=July 29, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201025111330/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/~molna22a/classweb/politics/images/italian%20population%20chart%20001.jpg |archive-date=October 25, 2020 }}</ref> They came for the most part from southern Italy and from the island of [[Sicily]].<ref>Nelli (1980) p 545.</ref>  Most planned to stay a few years, then take their earnings and return home. According to historian [[Thomas J. Archdeacon]], 46 percent of the Italians who entered the United States between 1899 and 1924 permanently returned home.<ref>Thomas J. Archdeacon, ''Becoming American: An Ethnic History'' (Free Press, 1983), p. 139 [https://archive.org/details/becomingamerican00arch/page/139/mode/2up online]</ref>

Immigrants without industrial skills found employment in low-wage manual labor jobs. Instead of finding jobs on their own, most used the [[padrone system]] whereby Italian middlemen (''padroni'') found jobs for groups of men and controlled their wages, transportation, and living conditions for a fee.<ref>Luciano J. Iorizzo, ''Italian immigration and the impact of the padrone system'' (1980) p. 160</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immigration/italian7.html#|title=Italian|publisher=Library of Congress|access-date=January 6, 2020}}</ref> According to historian Alfred T. Banfield: <blockquote>Criticized by many as slave traders who preyed upon poor, bewildered peasants, the "padroni" often served as travel agents, with fees reimbursed from paychecks, as landlords who rented out shacks and boxcars, and as storekeepers who extended exorbitant credit to their Italian laborer clientele. Despite such abuse, not all "padroni" were dastardly and most Italian immigrants reached out to their "padroni" for economic salvation, considering them either as godsends or necessary evils.<ref>Alfred T.  Banfield, ""The padrone, the sojourners, and the settlers: a preface to the 'little Italics' of Maine." ''Maine Historical Society Quarterly'' (1992)  Vol. 31 Issue 3/4, pp 114-141.</ref></blockquote>

In terms of the push-pull model of immigration,<ref>{{cite book|author1=James Ciment|author2=John Radzilowski|title=American Immigration: An Encyclopedia of Political, Social, and Cultural Change: An Encyclopedia of Political, Social, and Cultural Change|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PPFnBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT109|year=2015|page=109|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-47716-7}}</ref> the push factor came primarily from the harsh economic conditions in southern Italy. Major factors that contributed to the large exodus included political and social unrest, the weak agricultural economy of the South modeled on the outdated [[latifundia|latifundist]] system dating back to the [[feudal system|feudal]] period, a high tax burden, soil exhaustion and erosion, and military conscription lasting seven years.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Many chose to emigrate rather than face the prospect of a deepening poverty. America provided the pull factor by the prospect of jobs that unskilled and uneducated Italian peasant farmers could do.<ref>{{cite book|author=Michael Burgan|title=Italian Immigrants|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3CVFlliPvqEC&pg=PA29|year=2009|publisher=Infobase Publishing|page=29|isbn=978-1-4381-0359-4}}</ref> By far the strongest "pull" factor was higher income.<ref>Humbert S. Nelli, ''Italians in Chicago, 1880-1930 : a study in ethnic mobility'' (1970) pp. 18, 59.</ref>  Immigrants expected to make considerable sums in only a few years of work, enabling them to improve their econonic status when they returned home; however, the Italian immigrants earned well below average rates.<ref>Robert Higgs, "Race, Skills, and Earnings: American Immigrants in 1909" ''Journal of Economic History'' 31#2  (1971), pp. 420-428, table on p. 426 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2117052 online]</ref> The result was a sense of alienation from most of American culture and a lack of interest in learning English or otherwise assimilating.<ref>Robert A. Orsi, ''The Madonna of 115th Street: faith and community in Italian Harlem, 1880-1950'' (Yale UP, 1985), pp. 156-160.</ref> Not many women came, and those who did remained devoted to traditional Italian religious customs.<ref>Orsi, 168-71, 204-207.</ref> When [[World War I]] broke out, European migrants could not go home. Wages shot up, and the Italians benefited greatly. Most decided to stay permanently.<ref>Nelli, ''Italians in Chicago,'' p. 203-204.</ref>

Many sought housing in the older sections of the large [[Northeastern United States (U.S. Census Bureau)|Northeastern]] cities—districts that became known as "[[Little Italy]]s." Such housing was frequently in overcrowded, substandard tenements, which were often dimly lit and had poor heating and ventilation; tuberculosis and other communicable diseases were a constant health threat. The Italian male immigrants in the Little Italys were most often employed in manual labor and were heavily involved in [[public works]], such as the construction of roads, railroad tracks, sewers, subways, bridges, and the first skyscrapers in these cities. As early as 1890, it was estimated that around 90 percent of New York City's and 99 percent of Chicago's public works employees were Italians.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/voices/italian_immigration.cfm|title=Digital History|website=Digitalhistory.uh.edu|access-date=October 7, 2017}}</ref> The women most frequently worked as seamstresses in the garment industry or in their homes. Many established small businesses in the Little Italys. In spite of the economic hardship of the immigrants, civil and social life flourished in the Italian American neighborhoods of the large northeastern cities.<ref>John W. Briggs, ''An Italian Passage: Immigrants to Three American Cities, 1890-1930'' (Yale University Press, 1978)</ref> The ''festa'' street festival became for many an important connection to the traditions of their ancestral villages in Italy, helping give the immigrants a sense of unity and common identity.

Many of the Italian immigrants also went to more remote regions of the country, such as Florida and California, drawn by opportunities in agriculture, fishing, mining, railroad construction, and lumbering. It was not uncommon, especially in the South, for the immigrants to be subjected to economic exploitation, hostility, and sometimes even violence.<ref name=Gambino1977>{{cite book |last=Gambino |first=Richard |title=Vendetta: A True Story of the Worst Lynching in America, the Mass Murder of Sicilian Americans in New Orleans in 1891, the Vicious Motivations Behind it, and the Tragic Repercussions and Stereotypes that Linger to This Day |publisher=Doubleday |year=1977 |isbn=0-385-12273-X |url=https://archive.org/details/vendettatruestor00gamb }}</ref> The Italian laborers who went to these areas were in many cases later joined by wives and children, which resulted in the establishment of permanent Italian American settlements. A number of towns, such as [[Roseto, Pennsylvania]],<ref>{{cite journal|pmc=1695733 | pmid=1636828 | volume=82 | issue=8 | title=The Roseto effect: a 50-year comparison of mortality rates | year=1992 | journal=Am J Public Health | pages=1089–92 | last1 = Egolf | first1 = B | last2 = Lasker | first2 = J | last3 = Wolf | first3 = S | last4 = Potvin | first4 = L | doi=10.2105/ajph.82.8.1089}}</ref> [[Tontitown, Arkansas]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2680|title=Tontitown (Washington County) - Encyclopedia of Arkansas|website=Encyclopediaofarkansas.net|access-date=October 7, 2017}}</ref> and [[Valdese, North Carolina]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ncpedia.org/waldensians|title=Waldensians - NCpedia|website=Ncpedia.org|access-date=October 7, 2017}}</ref> were founded by Italian immigrants during this era.

[[Sarah Wool Moore]], was so concerned with [[Confidence trick|grifters]] luring immigrants into rooming houses or employment contracts in which the bosses got kickbacks that she pressed for the founding of the Society for the Protection of Italian Immigrants (often called the Society for Italian Immigrants). The society published lists of approved living quarters and employers. Later, the organization began establishing schools in work camps to help adult immigrants learn English.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Iorizzo|first1=Luciano J.|last2=Mondello|first2=Salvatore|title=The Italian-Americans|url=https://archive.org/details/italianamericans00iori|url-access=registration|year=1971|publisher=Twayne Publishers|location=New York, New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/italianamericans00iori/page/100 100]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Baily|first=Samuel L.|title=Immigrants in the Lands of Promise: Italians in Buenos Aires and New York City, 1870 - 1914|url=https://archive.org/details/immigrantsinland0000bail|url-access=registration|year=1999|publisher=Cornell University Press|location=Ithaca, New York|isbn=0-8014-3562-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/immigrantsinland0000bail/page/207 207]–208}}</ref> Wool Moore and the society began organizing schools in the labor camps that employed Italian workers on various dam and quarry projects in Pennsylvania and New York. The schools focused on teaching phrases that workers needed in their everyday tasks.<ref>{{cite book|last1=McDonald|first1=Robert Alexander Fyfe|title=Adjustment of School Organization to Various Population Groups |series=Contributions to Education|volume=75|date=1915|publisher=[[Teachers College, Columbia University]]|location=New York City, New York|url=https://archive.org/stream/adjustmentschoo01mcdogoog#page/n84/mode/1up/search/%22Sarah+Wool+Moore%22|pages=72–73}}</ref>