Abstract:
The topic of Italian emigration has long been the subject of study as one of the crucial and decisive event within the Argentine economic and social development process. It is a phenomenon of great impact that brought more than 27 million Italians abroad between 1876 and 1988.
The aim of this paper is to conduct an in-depth investigation on the subject starting first of all from an analysis of the reference literature in order to understand its value at the historical, social and economic level. Once analyzed the general phenomenon, that is to say the different aspects of Italian emigration in Argentina, the analysis will go on with a more in-depth view of the detail that represents the central point of this thesis: the different realities, the society and the environment in which the Italian emigrants found themselves immersed in once arrived in Argentina, and how they adapted to the political and social context of the country.
In order to enhance this research, the focus then shifts towards one of the main reasons for Italian emigration to Argentina: job hunting. So in the last section of this paper there will be the comparison between the Italian and Argentine labor movement, starting from their historical background, their development process and changes that have gone through over the years. These two labor movements will be compared both through an historical analysis and the press of those years.
The sources that have been used in order to compare the Italian and Argentine public opinion starting from 1896 up to the first world war on the theme of emigration are the Italian one called "Critica Sociale", with particular attention to the articles published by politician and journalist Filippo Turati, among the first important leaders of Italian socialism, Carlo Petrocchi who analyzed the causes and effects of the migratory movement, as well as other Argentine magazines.