Weaving Italian experience into the British immigration narrative

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (peer-reviewed)peer-review

Abstract / Description of output

Colin Holmes' pioneering work encouraged the emergence of a substantial historiography which testifies to historical traditions of intolerance towards different immigrant communities in Britain since the mid-nineteenth century. Yet, traditionally, there has been a tendency within British Italian texts dedicated to recovering the histories of the Italian presence in the United Kingdom to portray the Italians as somehow immune from the difficulties faced by other ethnic minority groups. The chapter presents the evolution of the historiography of the British Italian migrant experience, acknowledging the groundbreaking contributions of scholars such as Terri Colpi and Lucio Sponza whilst also mapping more recent works which focus on questions of war, identities and memory. The Italians are considered a long-established migrant group, having started to arrive in Britain in significant numbers in the mid-nineteenth century. The early recovery work of Italian migrant experience in Britain was undertaken by geographers rather than historians.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationMigrant Britain: Histories from the 17th to the 21st Centuries
Subtitle of host publicationEssays in Honour of Colin Holmes
EditorsJennifer Craig-Norton, Christhard Hoffmann, Tony Kushner
PublisherRoutledge
Chapter10
Pages117-127
Number of pages11
ISBN (Electronic)9781315159959
ISBN (Print)9781138065147, 9781138065130
Publication statusPublished - 2018

Publication series

NameRoutledge Studies in Radical History and Politics

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