From: The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples/Italians/Franc Sturino
The Italian ethnic group in Canada, well on its way to being assimilated by the majority culture prior to World War II, re-emerged in the post-war era with a vigour that few could have predicted. While this ethnic recreation was primarily the result of massive new immigration from Italy throughout the 1950s and 1960s, other factors were also important. The re-establishment of Italy’s international reputation in the cultural and economic fields contributed to the confidence of its immigrants. In Canada an enlightened policy of multiculturalism after 1970 officially gave all Canadians an equal place within the evolving mosaic and presented a new opportunity for ethnic groups to contribute to nation building.
During the 1950s the organizational efforts of Italian Canadians had focused on the immediate requirements of settlement, establishing societies for immigrant assistance and regional clubs for social needs. Strong Little Italys re-emerged in the major centres of immigrant concentration that provided the foundation upon which advanced community formation and incorporation into the mainstream were to progress. Multi-purpose community centres acted as a powerful centripetal force within the ethnic group, and major umbrella organizations tied Italian Canadians together in the political and economic spheres, bringing new cohesion and influence to the collectivity.
At the individual level, especially for the second generation, ethnic group involvement provided an attractive means of combining self-interest with emotional expression. The disorienting features of post-industrial mass society could be ameliorated by ethnicity. In making possible the creation of a manageable community and the social construction of an identity rooted in a meaningful and particular time and space, ethnicity was able to provide a needed antidote to the atomization and anomie that threatened individuals in mass society. But it is also true that Italian Canadians had the good fortune of being able to draw upon a heritage that was particularly rich in historical depth and cultural texture, and which itself was the product of heterogeneous influences.
Organizational maturity within the ethnic collectivity was matched by major advances in education and the expansion of media, artistic, and intellectual production. Moreover, the 1970s and 1980s witnessed impressive signs of socio-economic mobility as Italian Canadians moved into new suburban neighbourhoods and into highly qualified, responsible positions. This process was matched in the political arena by Italians winning electoral representation commensurate with their numbers.
The vigour of the Italian-Canadian community was such that a major government survey conducted in the mid-1970s found the group to be the most visible of any. When Canadians were asked which ethnic group they were aware of, more spontaneously mentioned Italians than any other. Over 56 percent said that they were cognizant of Italians, compared to about 43 percent for each of the charter groups and for Germans, after which awareness of other groups decreased to 25 percent. While the salience of the Italian-Canadian community partly resulted from its relative strength in numbers (almost 872,000 in 1981) and wide distribution throughout Canada, more important was its varied and distinctive presence. Italian food, fashion, and feste invited participation by all; Italian-Canadian art, letters, and music were gaining recognition; and new-found economic and political power gave the group considerable national leverage.
The rebuilding, expansion, and consolidation of “Canadian Italia” during the last half-century has been due to a strong degree of ethnic commitment on the part of immigrants and their children, both men and women. The resulting high level of institutional completeness provides Italian Canadians with the possibility of experiencing, as well as expressing, their ethno-cultural identity through a wide spectrum of activities: among others, Italian-language television, professional associations, intellectual circles, religious societies, sports leagues, and political lobbies.
Within the private realm, the family and religion have been interrelated pillars of ethnic continuity, and both hold greater importance for Italian Canadians than among the general population. In 1992 the divorce rate for Italian Canadians was almost half that of the total population, or one divorce for each thirty-three marriages. A poll conducted some years earlier among seven ethnic groups in Toronto found that Italians attached the highest importance to religion. Some 83 percent stated that it was important in their lives, and 64 percent attended church, 35 percent regularly. Despite the growing proportion of the Canadian-born (over 40 percent by the mid-1980s) and the increasing level of exogamy, Italian family and moral values have persisted to a significant degree. Like ethnicity, identification with the famiglia is a major means of providing Italian Canadians with security in the midst of an impersonal mass society. Interestingly, the census suggests that many children of mixed marriages are likely to identify themselves as Italian Canadians. Multiple-origin Italian Canadians increased more than threefold from 124,000 in 1981 to almost 400,000 ten years later.
Increasingly relevant is the ethnic commitment of the third and subsequent generations, whose share of the Italian-Canadian collectivity, given the near cessation of new immigration since 1970, is steadily growing. One of the few studies of the third generation was conducted in Toronto in 1978–79, and while the sample size was modest (about seventy, but greater for earlier generations), its results are suggestive. The survey indicated that, while the third generation had English as their mother tongue, 46 percent knew some Italian and almost one-quarter used it with moderate frequency. Almost 30 percent participated in ethnic functions, such as picnics, concerts, rallies, and lectures; 64 percent owned objects related to ethnic traditions, such as artistic and religious articles; 55 percent had other Italian Canadians as their closest friends; 45 percent retained feelings of obligation to help group members find a job; and slightly more expressed high or medium levels of ethnic identity. Hence, for roughly half of the third generation, ethnicity remained a key element in primary relationships. Of the five major ethnic groups covered in the study, only the Jews had significantly higher levels of third-generation ethnic maintenance.
All these measures indicate that third-generation Italian Canadians retain ethnic behaviour and group identification to a substantial degree. But it is interesting to note that, although little emphasis was placed on endogamy, almost a third felt that it was important for their children to speak Italian. Hence, while being open to intermarriage, many of the third generation still aspire to a meaningful level of ethnic maintenance on the part of their offspring.
Significantly, third-generation Italian Canadians scored highest among the five groups with regard to the retention of traditional food habits. While such habits were generally preserved among all groups across the generations more than any other ethnic pattern, the degree of maintenance was accentuated for Italian Canadians. As high as 92 percent of members of the third generation frequently ate Italian food, which was only a modest decrease from the earlier generations (about 98 percent). Food customs were the most immediate way that Italian Canadians were able to draw upon a rich culinary culture, which itself was the product of European, Asian, and native American influences.
The strong retention of traditional foods has wide implications for ethnic commitment. The maintenance of an Italian diet means that food stores and greengrocers – important mainstays of Italian neighbourhoods – are able to thrive. Traditional foods are an integral part of weekend and holiday family get-togethers, weddings and baptisms, and feste and ethnic picnics. Having attained popularity in the general society, the ethnic foods become an early source of group attraction and identification for the young, which can lead outwards to cultural maintenance at several levels in adulthood: for example, the retention of traditional religious practices, the restaurant trade, tourism to Italy, appreciation for the peasant past of their immigrant forebears, and the adoption of Italian domestic culture in spite of exogamy.
There are also new signs of the ethnic identification of the Canadian-born. The World Cup victory of 1982 galvanized Italian-Canadian youth to celebrate their ethnicity, an event that was repeated in 1994 when the tournament was brought to North America for the first time and the Azzurri (Italian team) reached the finals. Capitalizing on the obvious enthusiasm of Italian-Canadian youth for sports during the 1982 tournament, a new organization was founded by Toronto community leaders, the Co-ordinating Committee for Youth Games. Sponsoring soccer and Olympic-style competition on a yearly basis, the youth games developed into a national event which during its eleventh competition in 1994 brought together young Italian Canadians from British Columbia to Quebec. Moreover, sporting exchanges with Italy, especially involving soccer, built new links between young people and their ancestral land.
Unlike the situation in the pre-war era, during which the Atlantic Ocean posed a psychological barrier to identification with Italian roots, the advent of affordable airfare in recent decades has led to an annual exodus to Italy of both immigrants and their children. Tourist demand expanded to a level where Alitalia, despite the recession of the early 1990s, expanded its flights from Toronto from three to four per week. Moreover, the granting of additional powers by Rome to the regions in the mid-1970s resulted in the implementation of regionally sponsored cultural excursions for young Italian Canadians, thus providing another link between members of the younger generation and their Italian roots.
Lastly, identification with their ethnicity is widely disseminated to the children and grandchildren of immigrants by a powerful memory culture passed down from generation to generation. Just as the immigrants had often been raised within a culture of emigration in Italy, their offspring inherited an oral tradition that passed on to them the immigrant experience of their forebears. Their self-image as hard working people who literally helped to build Canada in its modern form – their popular sense of themselves as “nation builders” – has been passed on through the generations. In short, the culture of emigration of the first generation has been transformed into a culture of immigrant nation builders for their progeny. Often the motivation of the Canadian-born to excel in education and move up in the socioeconomic hierarchy is related to their sense of having a responsibility to repay the sacrifices of their parents through the attainment of public esteem and status, which would reflect upon the family as a whole.
The rise of Canadian multiculturalism in the 1970s and its consolidation in the 1980s has led to the propitious situation where individuals are increasingly able to choose and negotiate their ethno-cultural identity. Italian Canadians, both the immigrants and the Canadian-born, have in a relatively short time succeeded in building a collective presence and identity that holds much promise for the future. Although the picture is not entirely clear, major indications point to a strong level of ethnic commitment, which will ensure the survival of the Italian-Canadian collectivity. Certainly, immigrants and their children have laid a solid foundation for the future. Italian Canadians now have a real opportunity to claim a significant space in the evolving mosaic that comprises the Canadian identity. Indications are that they will seize the opportunity to good advantage, both for the ethnic group and for Canadian society as a whole.
