Milli mála - 01.01.2013, Side 153

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tion, 1873) (Grandi 2007: 27) and what were essentially police
laws.11 These included a law that came into force in 1878, when the
government was headed by the left-wing Prime Minister Agostino
Depretis, and the Crispi law of 1888, which was designed to regu-
late the relationship between emigrants and emigration agents but
which ignored, for instance, assistance to emigrants in their place
of destination (Grandi 2007: 29). At least until the first decade of
the twentieth century, Italian governments carried out a general
policy of persecution of emigrants rather than protection, even
where the infrastructures related to migration were concerned.
While other major European ports of emigration adjusted to the
latest requirements of emigration and emigrants,12 in 1890, the
port of Genoa, the largest Italian emigration port, still offered just
one embarkation place for passengers. In Genoa, Naples and
Palermo, once the health treatments were completed, the prospec-
tive emigrants could linger on the docks for days waiting for em-
barkation. In 1916, fifteen years after the first framework legisla-
tion on emigration, an article published in “Illustrazione italiana”
(Italy Illustrated) described the situation in the Port of Genoa as
follows: “The emigrants come to town by trains or by ferries and
they camp out along the docks, or along the streets which surround
the port. They stay put, rain or shine, waiting their turn. The pic-
ture is always the same.”13 In addition, in spite of state aid which
benefitted them, the ship owners, relying on government indiffer-
ence, generally employed rusty and obsolete vessels for emigration
11 In 1805, during the French occupation of Italy, population censuses – ordered by the imperial
government – identified incongruities in the section regarding required compulsory military
service within the Italian municipalities. It was discovered that those incongruities were due to
the fact that part of the male population (4000–5000 people) had deserted from military service.
The Italian prefects were entrusted with the identification of this mass of runaway men. The
results which the Italian prefectures sent to Paris between 1810 and 1813 can be considered the
first extended recognition of Italian seasonal and internal migration. Since then, modern passports,
which came into force in the same period, represented the main, if not the only, means to control
emigration. Since the issuing of passports was delegated to police authorities, emigration itself
became (and remained for a long time) a police matter. Theoretically, it could be regulated,
directed and, if necessary, even prohibited (Porcella 2001: 18–19).
12 In Marseille, a new quay had been built in1844; since 1875, seven new quays had been connected
to the railway in Rotterdam; while in 1866, Bremen had been provided with one of the most up-
to-date quays in Europe (Molinari 2001: 248).
13 Molinari 2001: 249. “Gli emigranti giungono in città in treni speciali o in piroscafi costieri e si
accampano lungo la calata, lungo le vie che circondano il porto. Stanno immobili sotto il sole e la
pioggia ad attendere il proprio turno. Il quadro è sempre lo stesso”.
STEFANO ROSATTI