A provincial level analysis of Italian emigration to Africa in mass migration years. Who left and why

During Italy’s mass migration movement (1890-1914), Italians went all over the world, the United States and Argentina being the main destination countries and income differentials being one of the basic push factors. In the case of Italian emigration to Africa, also historical, cultural and geographical reasons made the Mediterranean African countries (in particular Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia) the natural destination shores of Italian labourers, a movement which had started many decades before the Italian state was born (1861). The Mediterranean sea had not only witnessed warfare and strife but grew rich because of pacific interrelations, mutual exchange of goods, ideas, scientific knowledge, workers and, to a lesser scale, professionals (engineers, doctors, accountants etc.). The Italian community in Africa grew steadily and it was often the link with the post-unification immigration fluxes. This article will present a provincial level analysis of Italian emigration to Africa. It will also look at the economic motives that pushed Italians to emigrate to Africa and at the role of migration chains in directing the flows. This paper will concentrate on free migration movements but will also briefly deal with the fascist government assisted or induced migration to the Italian colonial empire.