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Migration and Peasant Militance: Western Sicily, 1880-1910

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Donna R. Gabaccia
Donna R. Gabaccia*
Affiliation:
Mercy College
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Extract

Although writers like Stephenson (1979) have questioned the assumption, many historians of immigration continue to argue that geographic mobility and levels of working-class consciousness (as expressed in trade unions, strikes, or workers’ political parties) are negatively related. In so arguing, recent studies follow the work of MacDonald and MacDonald, who claim that where migration from Italy was high, labor militance was low (MacDonald, 1963, 1958; MacDonald and MacDonald, 1964). For example, Barton (1975) and Yans-McLaughlin (1977) argue that familist southern and eastern European peasants living in fluid, complex societies were most likely to emigrate to the United States, in hopes of improving their positions in their home villages. Their familism—strong solidarity within the nuclear family and concomitant competitiveness in relations with those outside the nuclear group—discouraged voluntary associations, including participation in workers’ organization both in Italy and in the United States.

Type
Research Article
Information
Social Science History , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , Winter 1984 , pp. 67 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 1984 

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