italy - There have been close to 5 million people that have immigrated to the United States from Italy since 1880 while 4 million of these immigrants

There have been close to 5 million people that have immigrated to the United States from Italy since 1880, while 4 million of these immigrants made the trip between the years 1880 and 1920. Since 1920, Italian immigration numbers have decreased each decade and there has been a significant drop in numbers over the past 30 years. It has been reported that the assimilation process for the first Italian immigrants was a lot slower than immigrants in recent years. One possible explanation for this is that the immigrants from the early 20 th century knew little English and a sustainable American culture of the time was still formulating. Many of the Italian immigrants today emigrate from Italy to the US for skilled labor positions and also have an English background, differing from the initial immigrants who came for a new life knowing little to no English. It is interesting to study the Italian immigrants of today because of how different both, Italy and America, are today As the United States population grows everyday the amount of Italian immigrants decrease. In 1980, Italians made up for 5.7% (858.900) of the total American population, while in 2000 this number dropped to 1.6% (630,818). This is a negative 37.3% growth rate. Some other data that might be useful is explaining why the steady decrease may be found in Italy’s Census. More jobs may be available in Italy than 30 years ago and this could be why more Italians are staying in their homeland. While Italian immigration numbers have exponentially decreased over the century the median age of the immigrants increased until 1980 then leveled off at around 58 years old.