The once fertile soil that had existed in the past, was now nothing more than clay and rock. Over the centuries, extreme drought, erosion and poor soil management practices had gradually depleted the land of all its top soil and vital nutrients” (Early 1). A massive earthquake that killed more than a hundred thousand people also pushed many to search for a new homeland. Other factors that pushed emigration were the fact that the Italian government industrialized the country at the expense of the citizens and production of foodstuffs had declined in the late 19th and early 20th centuries which caused a high degree of malnutrition among the people.
At about the same time when these push factors were developing in Italy, so numerous pull factors were occurring in America that made it the choice of most immigrants. America was rapidly developing its industrial base ever since the end of the Civil War. By the early 1900s there was a great need for unskilled and skilled labor and the railroads that were being built across the country actually paved the way for Italian immigrants to spread into the country in different regions because many of them followed the railroads because where they went work followed, “Railroad companies offered work. The railroads connected the cities in which work was to be found” (Immigrants 2). Economic conditions were booming in America and the growth of the US allowed many immigrants to not only find work, but it allowed them to act as middle-men to help others emigrate to America and find work, “Italian arrivals increased by chain migration, which is a process whereby immigrants arriving in America acted as personal labor agents and told their family and friends when and where jobs were available. This flow continued as long as favorable economic conditions existed in America” (Scivolette 1).
The Italian immigrants that came to America in the first half of the 20th century found many...