ROME. On the other side of the world there is a “Little Italy” that is growing again with the “working holidays”. It is fueled by migratory flows documented by the Idos statistical dossier in the new study entitled “Australia and the Italians: far or near?” and made by Franco Pittau and Silvano Ridolfi.
The stages
That from Italy to Australia is a long-standing emigration, which starts from the beginning of the nineteenth century: in fact, the missionaries were the first to emigrate to preach to the aborigines. However, among those who landed in Australia, few chose to take root, discouraged by the cold welcome reserved for those who were not wasp, that is, white, Anglo-Saxon and Protestant (except for the Irish, the largest community after the English one). Immediately after the second post-war period, this island-continent opened up more to Italians, who went there in large numbers as part of a bilateral emigration agreement: since then and until the end of the last century, 400 thousand people have moved there. In recent years, about a thousand Italians a year settle in Australia, mostly young people, often attracted by a seasonal period of “working holiday”.
Open doors
In the second half of the last century, before the doors were also opened to Asian immigration, Italians became the third largest foreign community. Only a part
of our compatriots preferred to repatriate, while the majority, overcoming linguistic difficulties and social problems, settled permanently and started the Italian-Australian community which, between citizens and natives (the largest component), counts one million people out of a total of 25 million residents. The famous Italians in Australia, of which the survey presents an overview, managed to establish themselves in the context of a diaspora that has continued to grow mainly thanks to the contribution of the second generations, as illustrated by the significant testimony of Giuseppe Lastella. In the current geopolitical context, after the post-war bipolarity, Europe, having lost its political centrality, appears weak not only demographically but also economically, due to the lack of raw materials. The Old Continent is therefore asking itself about the possibility of a relocation that will allow it to fully exploit its technological and industrial capacity
through a renewed system of international relations.
Italian community
From this point of view, both the Italian community in Australia, which – here as elsewhere – can be considered an effective incubator of transnational relations, as well as Australia itself, with its enormous resources and its uninterrupted development, represent two strategic realities. precious. In particular, Australia deserves to be valued, in the Italian public debate, for its positive directions
governance, such as the choice of multiculturalism, as early as the 1970s, and the introduction of elements of flexibility in migration legislation (without prejudice to the so-called
“Pacific solution” adopted, not without problems, towards irregular immigrants). Italians abroad continue to represent an incredible mine of human resources, established
by the more than 5 million resident citizens and by the tens of millions of their descendants. If once the main levers of connection with the homeland were citizenship and language, now Italians, although they do not forget their origin, are permanently inserted in other countries of which they have mostly acquired citizenship.
Innovative policies
The research advocates the introduction of innovative policies that allow to dynamize the relations between our share capital abroad and the host States, paving the way for economic and cultural benefits
and social. The study will be available in two parts: the first, dedicated to the evolution of migratory flows, will be published by the 1st
May on the online magazine “Mediterranean Dialogues”, where the second part will appear on 1 July, which will focus on
current situation and the prospects of Italian emigration to Australia.
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