III. Statistical Data

What effect these complaints and sought-after legislative provisions have had is obvious from the official statistics on emigration, which is increasing year after year, and from the fact that all the countries of Old Europe are, as it were, gripped by the fever of colonization. One could say that governments and nations are pushed by a mysterious force to seek new outlets for their activities. Europe feels ill at ease within its ancient borders and so experiences a pressing need to broaden its range of influence by occupying with peaceful means or with fire and sword unexplored and uncivilized regions of the world, so as to unload on them its surplus population and industrial production.

Even in Italy, emigration is taking on such proportions that it would be foolish to overlook it. In the past ten years, the constant increase in the number of emigrants has been truly gigantic. But this should not frighten us. In a little over half a century – from 1815 to 1875 – England has sent out from Europe 8,287,620 emigrants: 5,391,542 of them to the United States, and the rest to its many colonies. That great migratory movement has enriched England rather than impoverishing it.

The same may be said of other European countries, some of which, like France, Spain and Portugal, have provided extraordinary numbers of emigrants for centuries and received power and wealth in return. Others, like Germany and Austria, more recent colonizing countries, are trying to reconcile the dignity of the State with the interest and security of the emigrants themselves.

From data on Italian emigration published by the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Trade, I have taken the following figures (Table 1), which speak for themselves and need no comment.

From this table we can see that temporary emigration has fluctuated around 90,000 persons, reached the record figure of 100,000 in 1883, and

Table 1

Temporary and Permanent Italian Emigration in Foreign Countries

then decreased to 83,000 in 1886. But emigration in the strict sense, that is, permanent emigration, has increased steadily from about 20,000 persons – which it was until 1878 – to about 40,000 in the following three years, 1879, 1880, and 1881, and gradually increased to 84,352 in the past year.

The fact that this enormous increase in our emigration is not a passing phenomenon, one of those fancies that can excite a nation or an individual for a day, but a true indication of a permanent state of affairs, is proven by the very numerous and continuous departures for America, daily reported by the newspapers.

The Osservatore Romano of last May 22 carried the following news: “In the past few days, from this port (Naples), the Alsatia, a British steamship, has sailed for New York, with 80 tons of cargo and 890 emigrants; also the Britannia, a French carrier, with 300 tons of cargo and 920 emigrants. In one month, more than 20,00 emigrants have left, and what is more important, most of them with wives and children.”

And last November 15, the Moniteur de Rome reported from Genoa: “One thousand migrants have sailed for America on the Bourgogne, and yesterday 1,500 more left on the North America. About one hundred of these poor people were left behind for lack of room on board. But their luggage was on the ship. This year 68,000 emigrants have set sail from Genoa. Another large number (60,000) will leave during the coming month and in December.” Another important table is the one that divides emigrants by sex and age. In fact, the number of women and children increased from year to year and, in 1886, reached the 23,320 figure for women and the 15,000 figure for children under 14 years of age. These figures tell us clearly that our emigration is not made up simply of workers seeking employment abroad for a given period of time but comprises whole families and whole populations, as happened in the Friuli region and in some villages of upper Lombardy.