Italian immigrants arrived in America in the late 1800s as relatively unskilled labor that helped paved the way for a booming industrial economy. They were hundreds upon hundreds of thousands until they were more than four million. Fate was cruel to them as they had to face overwhelming prejudice, poverty and the isolation of being in a strange and unfriendly country.

Most of those early arrivals were young men who came in with hopes of greener pasteur. The Italian diaspora is considered the biggest mass migration of contemporary times. Nearly half of the Italian immigrants eventually returned to Italy. Those that remained created an ethnic enclave in some distinct parts of America, which are now known as the "Italian Americans". 

Read more

Source: http://italiantemper.com/