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Directorate of Statistics was renamed the General Directorate on
Statistics (It. Direzione generale sulla statistica), but the methods of
collecting data remained vague. In addition, its structure meant
that the system was not able to detect the so called “improper emi-
gration”. Grandi claims that improper emigration has too often
been overlooked (even by recent studies), while a better knowledge
of it is crucial to a social understanding of the phenomenon (Grandi
2007: 34–35). But it is precisely the essential lack of documenta-
tion that makes research into this particular aspect of the emigra-
tion phenomenon fraught with practical difficulties.9 Nonetheless,
it is worth noting that in bureaucratic parlance, “improper emigra-
tion” really meant “illegal emigration”. The presence of that par-
ticular kind of crime in the Italian penal code is emblematic of the
general policy regarding emigration at that time.
Since the statistics were unable to state which individuals and
even how many Italians emigrated, or where they emigrated to, the
entire statistical process amounted to little more than guesswork at
least until the first years of the twentieth century and despite an
increasingly substantial mass of emigrants (Grandi 2007: 35).
The suppression of any discussion on migration, as well as the
inefficiency of the system, coincided with marked indifference to
the condition of the emigrants and moreover with the absence of
competent authority. Between 1876 and 1900, total expatriations
from Italy already amounted to more than five million (Favero and
Tassello 1976: 21), but the first framework legislation on emigra-
tion, the Pantano, Luzzatti and Lampertico law, was promulgated
and thus came into force only in 1901, while the so-called
Commissariat of Emigration (It. Commissariato dell’Emigrazione) and
the Council for Emigration (It. Consiglio dell’Emigrazione) were es-
tablished as late as 1902. In the preceding years the Italian state had
relied on prohibitive laws (i.e. the Lanza law10 against free emigra-
9 In order to grasp a social understanding of the phenomenon, scholars tend rather to focus on
sources like letters and other handwritten material that emigrants exchanged with their families
or friends in Italy. In particular, see Franzina 2000.
10 The Lanza law was intended to stop the shameful employment of young Italian boys and girls in
migratory labour (see above), the so-called child trade, which dated back to the early eighteenth
century. Nevertheless, the law was applied to emigration in general (Porcella 2001: 36–37).
Prefects were instructed to dissuade citizens from emigrating by informing them of the risk of
being caught in a trap set by sly opportunists (Sacchetti 1978: 254).
STRANGERS IN THEIR OWN FATHERLAND