Ethnic Groups and Discrimination

Ethnic Groups and Discrimination

Italians are an integral part of the United States history as early as the exploration of North America by the Italian explorer (2011), according to Encyclopedia Britannica, Giovanni da Verrazzano in the service of the French crown. He is best known as the first European to explore North America on the Atlantic coast of North America from the Carolinas to Newfoundland. He explored New York Harbor and Narragansett Bay, Boston in 1524. Other Italian sailors and missionaries also had a role in early exploration and settlement of the Americas.

Although there was some indication of Italian colonization in the Untited States, the colonies were short lived and wrought with disease and discrimination. An example is the English province of East Florida in 1767. The settlement of New Smyrna was set up under feudal conditions for a thousand Italians, Greeks, and Minorcans. Unsanitary conditions, harsh overseers and an outbreak of malaria ended in a revolt by the Italians led by one Carlo Forni. On the Eve of the American Revolution most of the remaining Italians had died of scurvy or malaria, or had escaped to St. Augustine or the Bahamas (Veronesi, 2003).

The greatest influx of immigrants including Italians to the United Staes occurred from 1880 until 1920. After which, in May 1921, President Warren G. Harding signed the first bill establishing a restrictive European immigration policy (Cavaioli, 2008). The new law was especially hard on Italian immigration because it was based on immigration numbers when Italian immigration was low. The restriction allowed only three percent of the total immigrants from that country. President Calvin Coolidge signed a more restrictive bill known as the National Origins Quota Act of 1924, further restricting immigrants to two percent of the population as measured in 1890 (Cavaioli, 2008). Most Italians came to the United States with the intent of returning to their homes after earning enough money. They are known as Birds of Passage as they planned to remain in the U.S. for a year or two, and return to Italy with money (Pozzetta, G 2000). As many as half of the Italians who came to the United States returned to Italy. Italians coming to the United States were tradesman and laborers. They worked for low wages and were regarded as cheaper than machines. An example of a dual labor market is the padrone sub-contract system, as a result of which, Italian laborers made up four fifths of the labor force in New York City and were sent throughout the country as laborers (New York Times, p.14 Remembering the Ellis Island Experience). The padrone system was an indentured labor system that preyed upon Italian immigrants to the United States.

The Government discrimination was not the only hardship for Italian immigrants. Italians also suffered institutional discrimination as evidenced in the Catholic Church in the United States. "Some Italian-Americans have felt discriminated against in regard to their representation within the hierarchy of the American Catholic Church. They cite statistics to justify their contention that the Church has been biased in favor of Irish and Germans prelates to the exclusion of Italo-Americans. For example, as late as 1950 not one bishop of Italian descent was evident out of more than 100 Roman Catholic bishops" (Veronesi, 2003). Italians complained to the Vatican concerning their treatment by Irish and German hierarchy that governed the Catholic Church in the United States. Italians were not formal Catholics like the Irish and therefore were not as religious. This only worsened the Irish and German dislike of the Italian immigrant. Italian immigrant Catholicism centered on the local patron saints and the beliefs, superstitions, and practices associated with the feste (Pozzetta, 2000)

As a means to avoid discrimination, Italians formed small communities (Little