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Citizenship and Military Service in Italian–American Relations, 1901–1918
By Bahar Gürsel, Bilkent University
Conflicts over citizenship and military service became a central issue in Italian-American relations in the early twentieth century. The United States and Italy founded their concepts of citizenship on two different bases, jus soli and jus sanguinis. As a consequence of this difference and the swelling number of Italian immigrants naturalized in America, the two governments' policies about naturalization and military service collided until 1918. The Italian government's policy put Italian Americans' loyalty to the United States in jeopardy, especially for men who wished to return to Italy for business or educational purposes. Thus, the study of Italian Americans' experiences in the context of the policies of both countries illustrates a key aspect of the relationship between the United States and Italy, both in terms of social experience and public policy.
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Former Italian foreign minister and prime minister Giulio Andreotti once observed that Italian migration around the world "created a consistent network of ties between Italy and the host countries, which caused Italy to take a great and continuing interest in the state of those countries and in their mutual relations."1 Beginning in the 1880s, one of those host countries that received the highest rate of Italian immigrants was the United States, and thus the relationship between the United States and Italy entered a remarkable stage in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. The influx of Italians to American shores not only demonstrated the social, cultural, and economic distinctions between newly united Italy and the United States. It also revealed diverse and sometimes conflicting Italian and American ideas and laws about the issue of citizenship. |
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The early relationship between the United States and Italy began well but gradually deteriorated. Americans supported the independence of Italy during the 1848–49 revolutions and encouraged the Kingdom of Italy towards unification. After the Risorgimento, a cordial relationship developed between the United States and Italy. Americans supported Italy in its struggle for freedom and independence and admired it for its magnificent past, natural beauties, and cultural and intellectual heritage. |
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The influx of Italian immigrants, especially to big cities in the United States, however, fostered anti-Italian feelings. Between 1821 and 1904, around 1.8 million Italians arrived in the United States. From 1904 to 1920 alone, over two million more came.2 The Italian gained a stereotype as an illiterate, uncivilized, and deprived offender who could not adapt to American life and institutions. To many Americans, Italian immigrants came to seem an undesirable element in the society with uncertain prospects for assimilation. |
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Nevertheless, naturalization was open to Italians, just as it was to other Europeans. By offering immigrants citizenship through naturalization, the United States, in principle, aimed to create new Americans. U.S. citizenship implied not only an attachment to the new community, but abandonment of former citizenship and responsibilities. During the period between the mass immigration to America in the late nineteenth century and the end of World War I, however, Italy considered emigration as a "safety-valve" for its deprived economy. In the eyes of Italian politicians, emigration would bring financial benefits to Italy along with the intensification of italianitá (Italian character) of the Italians abroad. Italian officials also anticipated that most emigrants would be "birds of passage" and would return to their home country eventually as economically and socially advanced Italian subjects, thus helping overcome the domestic problems of poverty and ignorance. Italian authorities succeeded in encouraging returnees and remittances; the rate of Italian return migration between 1905 and 1915 is striking. During this period, nearly two-million Italian immigrants returned to their country. Two-thirds of the returnees came from the United States, though many of them, feeling neither wholly Italian nor wholly American, went back to the United States.3 |
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