Italian Migration to the USA by gabriele quartero

During the period of mass immigration to the United States, Italians suffered widespread discrimination in housing and employment. They were often victims of prejudice, economic exploitation, and sometimes even violence, particularly in the South. Beginning in the late 1880s, anti-ethnic sentiment increased, and Roman Catholic churches were often vandalized and burned and Italians were attacked by mobs. In the 1890s, it is estimated that more than 20 Italians were lynched.

Much of the anti-Italian hostility in the United States was directed at southern Italians and Sicilians, who began immigrating to the United States in large numbers after 1880. Before that, Italians in North America, mostly from northern and central Italy, were respected artisans, musicians, traders, soldiers and artists. The term Mafia entered into the vocabulary of the American public, and came to be associated with the southern Italian and Sicilian immigrants. There were also racial arguments for prejudice against Italian immigrants. The immigrants from the southern part of Italy and Sicily, where darker hair and skin predominate, were not considered wholly white by Anglo-Saxon standards in North America. The U.S. Bureau of Immigration reinforced this distinction by classifying Northern and Southern Italians as two different races.

Italian stereotypes abounded as a means of justifying the maltreatment of the immigrants. The print media greatly contributed to the stereotyping of Italians with lurid accounts of secret societies and criminality. Between 1890 and 1920, Italian neighborhoods were often depicted as violent and controlled by criminal networks.
Italian Americans in contemporary U.S. society have actively objected to pervasive negative stereotyping in the mass media. The stereotype of Italian-Americans is the standardized mental image which has been fostered by the entertainment media and movies, especially movies such as The Godfather, GoodFellas and Casino, and TV programs such as The Sopranos which have perpetuated the idea of Italian gangsters. This follows a known pattern of the mass media creating universally recognized, and sometimes accepted, stereotypes. Such stereotypes of Italian Americans are reinforced by the frequent replay of these movies and series on cable and network TV. Even videogames with Mafia themes, and TV and radio commercials using these same themes, reinforce the idea.

Actually, according to recent FBI statistics, Italian American organized crime members and associates number approximately 3,000; and, given an Italian American population estimated to be approximately 18 million, the study concludes that only one in 6,000 has any involvement with organized crime.

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