Italian Immigration

1880

• Before there was not a lot of Italian immigration.

• 1881 Census showed only 328 Italians• 1914, had risen to 4500.• 1880-1914 saw the rise of Italian immigration

due to two main factors. • Better life• Business opportunities and relatives.

Poverty

• Italians that suffered in agricultural (farming etc) areas.

• Famine, droughts and poverty were all common in small areas in Italy.

• Industrialisation was slow and little hope of getting out of the economic hardships.

• Many wanted to follow the American dream in USA.

• Scotland a realistic opportunity. (No immigration restrictions.)

Britain

• Some tried to use Britain as a stop gap to USA.• Some unexpectedly stayed.

Encouragement

• By Italians Lepolld Guliani and Luigi Zacchaine.• They sponsored young men by paying passage

to Scotland and setting up places to stay and live.

• Guliani had several shops around Glasgow and would employ young men.

• Possible chance of partnership.

Encouragement

• Zacchaine did the same and he had shops in Lossiemouth.

• New immigrants supplied premises and stock in return for half the profits until the cost was covered.

• Owning your own business was the ultimate aim.

• Possible to return to Italy with their own fortune.

Life for Italians in Scotland

• Three citiesGlasgow, Edinburgh or Aberdeen. • First skilled workers worked in the 19th century

and as craftsmen, musicians and street pedlars.

• Very quickly became businessmen.• Creation of Ice cream parlours and fish and

chip shops. • Not always an easy life.

Life in Scotland for Italians

• Carlo Gatti ice cream in Britain.• 1850s was a familiar face who peddled around

London in a painted cart.• Carts became common.. as did shops..• In Glasgow:• 1903: 84 Italian shops• 1904: 184• 1905: 336

Working Day

• Worked long hours• 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. • Living conditions not great.• Most immigrants lived in small flats with

young families.• In Glasgow, some moved to the slum area of

the Gorbals. • Made Italians more determined to improve

their lives.

Explain fully what life was like for Italians that moved to Scotland (8)

Relations between Italians and Scots

• Not much hostility at all. • Not highly concentrated in small areas.• Italians distributed amongst towns across the

country so their shops could grow.• They did not want Scots to feel intimidated or

drastically impacted by Italians.

Tomino Devino (haha) said:

“The Italians offered a popular service. They were few in numbers and virtually all worked in businesses owned by Italians. They therefore posed little threat either to natives or to wage levels.”

Hostility

• Was occasions when it happened.• Cart men were often jibbed at and intimidated

by the British youths.• Laughed at because of their poor English and

unusual pronunciation. • Stones were thrown into their freezers of their

carts and abuse shouted.

Religion

• Roman Catholics• Strict religious beliefs often clashed with

Scottish religious groups. • Occasionally Italians would open their shops

on a Sunday as their businesses flourished and many Scots disliked this.

• Since they were busy, this did not have an impact and the shops remained open.

Attack on Italians

• Organised turn in 1906. • Ice cream parlours, ‘morally contaminated’.• Arguments of late hours, Sunday trading,

cigarettes, inappropriate language and behaviour all began to label the ice cream parlours, causing them to loose business.

Attack

• Italians allied with the Temperance Movement. (A movement who urged the limited use of alcohol).

• Ice cream and fish shops were persuaded to have a positive alternative to alcoholism.

• Newspapers took up the argument and articles were published.

AT HOME

• Italians, when at home, STILL spoke Italian, ate Italian food, and only married Italians.

Tension

• No hostility• When Nazi rule of Germany in 1933

happened, fascism was frowned upon.• Italy was fascist under Benito Mussolini, and

some Scots tended to believe that some Italians were supporters of him or Hitler.

• This caused some tension.• However, most Italians were not supporters

and the tension was minimal.

Tom Devine

• “For many Italians, the hope, and for some reality, was eventually to return to Italy, and therefore any attempt at assimilation (to join in) into Scottish society, seemed pointless.”

How far question.