A comparison of Italian immigration to Rochester, NY, before and after WWII

Abstract

The main purpose of the article is to attempt to describe, analyse and interpret the experience of Italian immigrants in New York, in Rochester. Author of the dissertation compares the pre-war and post-war fate of immigrants. Furthermore, he is trying to find an anthropological sense and a cultural principle organizing the life of that specific ethnic group (symbols, rituals, strangers). The meaning of being a member of an ethnic group depends on both a specific situation and the total situation. The total boundary between groups must take in the total situation; that is, all the possible contacts in which a member of one ethnic group may come into contact with members of other such groups. Ethnic groups, in sum, exist to promote and organize interactions between and within groups organized on the mythic principle of common descent. Differences between those Italians who migrated to the United States before World War II and those who came after World War II can be understood through the framework of specific historical and cultural experience (mythic principle).