Existing Research on Italian Migrants in the USA and Australia: A Critical Overview

Abstract

This chapter provides a brief overview of the literature on Italian migrants in the USA and in Australia and the theoretical reference points on which different research studies are based. US literature was historically characterized by concepts of social change and assimilationist approaches whereby immigrant groups were expected to merge into general American culture. Some academic assumptions were maintained by later American sociologists studying Italian groups, although with new terminology, including urbanization, adaptation, accommodation, and social adjustment. In Australia, the rise of multicultural policies in the 1970s contrasted with the laissez-faire attitude to ethnic pluralism in the USA and led Australian literature to focus more on issues of cultural transmission and the construction of Italian ethnic groups. Australian studies, ranging across different disciplines, have examined the social organization of Italian migrants, mainly those from a working-class background and with a focus on domestic and family dynamics. More recently, both US and Australian studies have touched on matters of transnationalism, looking at issues such as the contemporary migration to the USA referred to as la fuga dei talenti ("the flight of the talented"), coexisting transnational contexts, gender, globalization, and matters of citizenship.