Italian American Culture Research Paper

For me, being an Italian American means that I have come from a long line of hardworking immigrants who came to the United States to make a better life for their children while still maintaining their Italian cultural pride and heritage. From the time that I was a small child, I was taught to be proud of my Italian heritage. From the young age of four or five, I can remember sitting in the kitchen while my grandmother and great-grandmother would be cooking and they would tell me how my great-great grandparents immigrated to the United States from Calabria. They told me how my great-great -grandfather came with little money and could not speak English. He worked in the mines and sold wood on the side in order to make a living. A few

The details on how my family arrived in America have been passed down by various members of my family. The accuracy and detail of these memories have diminished with every retelling. Some of my family arrived in America so long ago that all that remains of their experiences are rumors and stretched truths. As a story gets retold over and over it loses much of its accuracy. While much of my family history relies on this kind of storytelling, there are some in my family who were alive and experienced the challenges faced by immigrants. Though born in the United States, my maternal grandfather, Sebastian Passantino, was very familiar with the hardships of being an immigrant.

In the late 1800s, millions upon millions of Europeans made their way to America for a variety of reasons. For the citizens of Italy, those reasons included poverty and political hardship. For many Italians, farming was their livelihood, however the antiquity of their tools did not allow for maximum efficiency. As a result, approximately 5 million poor Italian farmers made the trip across the Atlantic to America. While most settled in New York and the surrounding states, some journeyed elsewhere to states like Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. Once they arrived, they would take the vacant positions of workers on strike making up to ten times the salary they would have made in their homeland.

The Italian culture has been developed into a staple of American life, especially with a preexisting history ingrained into communities across the United States.

Americans have become so accustomed to holiday traditions today that the meaning of how they arrived here has been lost. Immigrants of Italy brought to America their family-centered culture of celebrating these holidays. Their culture was so influencing that villages for the Italians were actually formed. The Italians celebrated numerous holidays in Italy; most celebrations included their fine foods and wine. Although, after the immigrants arrived in America they no longer observed many of the holidays that they did in Italy.

Again, both society’s beliefs are common also to Italy and not only US. When being interviewed at TV regarding issues of public administration, most of the time Italian politicians root the causes of the problems to bureaucracy and as a consequence they highly promote privatization. A last recent example is the referendum in Lombardy, which is asking for more independence in the financial sector and health sector, in order to prevent government intervention which, especially in Italy is a sign of disruption and corruption. The benefits of privatization could be high, as also Sandy Spring showed in the US. However, as also Douglas Amy states, in the end the difference among state bureaucracy and privatization is minimal and negligible.

Little Italy is unique because it is no longer the ethnic enclave it was 115 years ago. When comparing Little Italy to other ethnic neighborhoods, we can immediately see differences. In Chinatown, for example, there are many Chinese restaurants, businesses, and structures scattered throughout the neighborhood. In addition, many Chinese people can be found visiting, working, and even living in the enclave. When you see these Chinese individuals, they are often speaking the Chinese language. Little Italy, however, is quite different from Chinatown. Unlike Chinatown, Little Italy has lost its ethnic flavor. While Little Italy was once a neighborhood thriving with a heavy Italian immigration base, overtime it has lost its identity.

Italy is an European country. Italian is its official language, and 93% of the population is native Italian speakers. Its ethnic background includes small clusters of German-Italians, French-Italians, Slovene-Italians, Albanian-Italians, and Greek-Italians. With various clusters of people come various beliefs in religion. Religion has influenced the culture, artists, and national treasures of Italy in various ways.

Have you ever wondered how the Italian educational system compares to that of America? Well a lot of Italians would tell you in fact, they despise it. The schooling is not the most reliable, especially when it comes to how people are hired and the rampant instability of education jobs in the country. Another fact is that Italy still offers some of the most complete didactic curricula in Europe.

Geographically, Italy is comprised of a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, as well as two large islands. The shape of Italy has been depicted as a ‘boot’ in many cartoons and drawings for years. The country covers over 116,000 square miles, making it approximately the combined size of Florida and Georgia. (Killinger, 2002) Italy is a democratic republic that has a current population of around 60 million people, making it the twenty-third most populous country in the world. Italy

Italy, positioned in southeastern Europe, is a beautiful country that is faced with high unemployment, corruption and massive debt. Although it appears to be one of the most developed countries in Europe, Italy is somewhat of a laggard in globalization. Ranking twenty-third in world population, Italy stands at 56,126,212 people as of July 2009. The north and south seem to be split in economic terms with the north being well developed industrially and the south facing high unemployment and poverty. Italy is a democratic republic that replaced a monarchy back in 1946. Although it ranks seventh in world GDP and public debt and attracts millions of tourists every year, its current debt to GDP ratio continues to skyrocket. World economists

Few things identify Italians as well as food, “the cross-cultural consumption of Italian cuisine is a significant marker of the way in which others see and imagine Italy and the Italians.” Food is cultural artifact. The Italian culture lives to eat. Where as, the American culture eats to live. Food is a way of life in Italy, not just a way to survive.

Italy has been shaped by its history of constant warring and many rulers, which in turn has made Italians doubtful toward authority as well as giving them a strong ability to survive difficult situations (Welcome to Italy).

Now Italy has many problems in economic sector. The first is that it has very high debt level. Because of it Italy now is in crisis situation. Also Italian living standards have a considerable north-south divide. Italy suffers from structural weaknesses due to its geographical conformation and the lack of raw materials and energy resources. The country has an inefficient state bureaucracy, low property rights protection and high levels of corruption, heavy taxation and public spending that accounts for about half of