Specials

Italians form the largest non-English speaking ancestry group in Australia. They have been in Australia since the arrival of the First Fleet, and while they came to Australia in the 18th and 19th centuries, the main migration occurred in the 20th century, with the majority arriving after the Second World War.

This mass migration continued into the 1970s when the flow decreased dramatically due to economic, social and political developments in Italy. At a time when Australia was renowned for its insularity and pursued an Assimilation Policy (abandoned in 1970s) in which migrants were told they should discard their language and culture, Italians played an important part in the process of community formation and cultural maintenance.

The first generation that established Italian traditions and community in Australia. This generation who had experienced the deprivations of war, built up a better life for themselves and their children. They bought their own houses, developed their own small businesses, and helped their children become upwardly mobile.

The second generation provide the link into the Anglo-Australian institutions especially for working class Italians and for the aged Italian women and men who have not developed the competence to deal with Anglo-Australian political and cultural institutions. The second generation also provide the social and historical links between Italian and Australian culture and identity. Their multiple identities are rooted in two societies, and many have developed a process of interaction which embraces both cultures. Both the first and second generation married Italians from across the regions of Italy, and some of the second generation married outside of the Italian community. This is becoming more prevalent among the third generation.

Australia is a multicultural society with immigrants coming from over fifty countries of the world. Immigrants and their children make up 40 percent of the Australian population. Therefore, it is no surprise that the third generation Italians are marrying out. And although we can still speak of an Italian community in various capital cities of Australia, the strength of these communities is changing. How will this affect the ties between later generations with Italy, and more specifically with Sicily?

In this paper I will concentrate on the second and third generations of Italian-Australians, their lives, their achievements, their ties with Italy and Sicily in particular, and I will consider ways in which these ties have changed, and how they can be extended and deepened in the 21st century.



* This text is the abstract of the paper presented by Dr. Ellie Vasta to the conference "Memories of the Future" (Palermo, 28-29 November 2008)