8 - Regional differences

Summary

The preceding chapter conveys the picture of a rather homogeneous south. In reality the south was far from homogeneous. Differences among regions and even within provinces were profound. In some regions and provinces the dynamics described did not even take place. In others those dynamics occurred in different ways. This chapter discusses regional differences in return migration and investments of savings in the south.

The study of regional differences in return migration and investment of remittances within the south raises an important historical question that goes beyond the study of emigration and immigration history. How should we define the unit or units of historical investigation when we discuss social and economic events, like southern Italian emigration, before World War I? In this book I have discussed Italy and the differences between north and south. At this point, perhaps, the reader assumes that there was a south, sharing common social and economic characteristics. And to an extent that was the case. Yet a detailed study of regional differences in patterns of return migration and investments reveals that, seemingly, the south was only a mental construction. In reality the responses of towns and regions to opportunities provided by emigration and return migration were so varied as to call into question the very idea of a south. This chapter will indicate that regions, provinces, and probably individual towns should be studied one by one for the period we are investigating. But the reader should not be surprised by the differences within the south.