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About 5.5 million Italians immigrated to the U.S from 1820 to 2004. The greatest surge of immigration, which occurred in the period between 1880 and 1920, alone brought more than 4 million Italians to America. About 80% of the Italian immigrants came from Southern Italy, especially from Sicily and Campania, parts of the former Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. This region was mainly agricultural, overpopulated and economically underdeveloped, and benefitted little from the industry of the North after Italian unification. The Italian government initially encouraged emigration of landless peasants ("contadini") to relieve economic pressures in the South. In the U.S., most Italians began their new lives as unskilled, manual workers. Italian Americans gradually moved from the lower rungs of the economic scale in the early 1900s to a level comparable to the national average by 1970. The Italian-American communities have often been characterized by strong ties with family, the Catholic Church, fraternal societies and political parties. Today, over 17.8 million Americans claim to have Italian ancestry. The experiences of Italians and their descendents in America have been extremely varied, depending upon the region to which they immigrated, and the era in which they immigrated. They helped shape America and were, in turn, shaped by it. No common identity is shared by all Italian Americans; rather, they are as diverse as the American population itself. They have excelled in all fields of endeavor, and have gained prominence in politics, business, law, medicine, television, literature, education, the fine arts, the culinary arts, science, the military, engineering, sports, music, and entertainment. |