Abstract
In this closing chapter, the author argues that debate on the Questione del Mezzogiorno has begun to lose the harsh tone of the past and that the North–South gap has narrowed considerably. He highlights the country’s most recent efforts to improve the South’s living conditions, demonstrating that the area has made significant strides in overcoming cultural hurdles, including crime and illiteracy. He credits exterior forces, such as the European Union, with pressuring Rome to do away with cultural and bureaucratic practices that have discouraged investors from doing business in the country. The stage appears set for North and South to forsake their respective regionalism and see themselves as one, united people. With calculated optimism, DiMaria concludes that the ever-elusive goal of “making the Italians” is finally within reach.
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Notes
- 1.
Simone Bianchin, writing for La Repubblica , reported that following the news of the 2017 Manchester terrorist attack, someone tried to set on fire a bar owned and operated by a Moroccan emigrant. The town’s mayor condemned the act and warned against prejudice, “trenta anni fa venivano additati i meridionali, ora gli stranieri.” On the cinematic representation of the many issues surrounding Italy’s internal migration and foreign immigration since the 1950s, see the many interesting essays collected in Bullaro’s From Terrone to Extracomunitario.
- 2.
Antonio Giangrande, 208, citing data from the 2001 census and related studies, believes that there may be as many as nine million descendants of Southern emigrants living in the North: “è possibile stimare 3 milioni di discendenti meridionali nati in Padania, compresi i bambini nati da coppie miste […] il verdetto è di 9 milioni di individui, tra centro-meridionali etnici e loro discendenti puri o misti.”
- 3.
Rosaria Amato cites Istat’s conclusion that the causes keeping the South backward are linked: “alle condizioni di salute, alla carenza di servizi, al disagio economico.”
- 4.
Michele Bocci quotes the President of the Health Institute (Iss), Walter Ricciardi: “In Campania e Sicilia si ha una speranza di vita alla nascita di 4 anni inferiore rispetto a Trentino e Marche: nelle prime due regioni siamo cioè a livelli di Bulgaria e Romania, nelle altre della Svezia.”
- 5.
In 2015, Il fatto quotidiano, headlining with “Rapporto Svimez, tra 2000 e 2013 il Sud Italia è cresciuto la metà della Grecia,” concluded that the South risked permanent underdevelopment, “sottosviluppo permanente.”
- 6.
For details on the funds allocated for the many projects, see Pescatore.
- 7.
ALfaSud began production in Pomigliano, Naples, in 1972; Fiat opened its factory in Termini Imerese in 1972 and in Melfi in 1993.
- 8.
For details, see D’Aprile.
- 9.
A 2011 article entitled “Termini Imerese: finisce l’era Fiat” concludes, “secondo i vertici della Fiat produrre auto in Sicilia non sarebbe vantaggioso dato che ogni modello qui prodotto costa 1000 euro in più rispetto ad altri stabilimenti del gruppo a causa della mancanza di infrastrutture.”
- 10.
In the article, one reads: “It takes five hours to cross Sicily by rail from Palermo to Catania. How long it takes to drive from Salerno to Reggio di Calabria is a matter of chance. Work on modernising the A3 highway was due to finish six years ago, but will not now do so before 2011” (“The Messy Mezzogiorno”).
- 11.
Most of the railway system in Southern Italy was built in the second half of the nineteenth century. An attempt to expand the network was started during the Fascist regime before the war undermined its purpose and removed its resources.
- 12.
In Aprile, 210.
- 13.
In his “Perché hanno dimenticato il Sud,” Saviano writes, “In Campania, in Calabria, in Puglia, in Basilicata, in Molise, in Sicilia investire su trasporti e infrastrutture significherebbe dare inizio allo sviluppo di quei territori. Non impulso, non una spintarella, no: sarebbe un vero e proprio inizio.”
- 14.
“L’illegalità è un peso per la nostra libertà, per la nostra economia e per il futuro dei nostri figli […] È importante stimolare soprattutto nei giovani la crescita di un forte senso civico e la consapevolezza del valore della legalità per lo sviluppo del Paese” (“Mattarella: L’illegalità”).
- 15.
Following months of observation of a backward village in Southern Italy in the mid-fifties, Banfield, 101, noted: “The amoral familist will value gains accruing to the community only insofar as he and his are likely to share them. In fact, he will vote against measures which will help the community without helping him because, even though his position is unchanged in absolute terms, he considers himself worse off if neighbors’ position changes for the better.”
- 16.
Maria Saporito, paraphrasing Silvestri’s comments, writes, “sono circa 100 mila i giovani del Sud che decidono, ogni anno […] di lasciare la loro terra per andare al Nord o per spingersi all’estero: in Europa, ma anche fuori.” In 2016, Gualtieri reported that in the Sicilian towns of Favara and Licata about 40% of their citizens reside abroad.
- 17.
Esposito entitled his article “Giovani, incubo lavoro al Sud: la disoccupazione vola al 61%. Mai così alta nella storia.” He breaks down the unemployment rate as follows: “60,4% per i ragazzi (era 51,2 un anno fa); 61,6 per le ragazze (era 52,6% nel 2013) con una media del 60,9% (era 51,9%).”
- 18.
The reporters also note that the region, in its attempt to meet deadlines, endorses trivial projects such as bowling alleys.
- 19.
Quoting from Censis, Panicucci also points out that to obtain a building permit takes 105 days in Britain and 183 in France. Connections to the electrical grid take 79 days in France and 85 days in Spain.
- 20.
For details, see “Ranking the World by Economic Freedom” in Miller and Holmes’s report of 2011. For the 2015 report authored by Miller and Kim, see, besides the tables, 255.
- 21.
Panicucci noted that between 2011 and 2014 over €4 billion worth of contracts were awarded with little transparency. She concluded that many Italian companies have for years complained to no avail about contract rigging, “concorrenza sleale di chi corrompe.”
- 22.
“E’ avvenuto così che centinaia di mafiosi, arrestati dalle forze dell’ordine con gravi rischi e spesso in conflitti a fuoco, e tradotti nei tribunali di Lecce e di Catanzaro, siano stati prosciolti per mancanza di prove e rimandati liberi, perchè nessuno si era presentato a deporre contro di loro, evidentemente per paura della vendetta della mafia” (De Rosa, 596).
- 23.
See “Monza, nullatenente nasconde un milione e mezzo nel caveau segreto: denunciato.”
- 24.
See “Nullatenente per il fisco, maxi-sequestro allo spacciatore.”
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DiMaria, S. (2018). Toward Making the Italians. In: Towards a Unified Italy. Italian and Italian American Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90766-6_8
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