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2 Int'l Migration Dig. 5 (1965)

handle is hein.journals/imgratv9998 and id is 1 raw text is: SPECIAL DIGEST STUDY: POSTWAR MIGRATION FROM ITALY TO SWITZERLAND* KURT B. MAYER PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY BROWN UNIVERSITY PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, U.S.A. 1. Large-scale migrations of Italians to Switzerland have played an important role in the intra-European redistribution of people from under- developed areas to countries with superior economic opportunities. The migratory flow from Italy to Switzerland has always been determined prima- rily by changing conditions of the Swiss economy and has varied sharply over time. Italy has long been a major exporter of population. Switzerland, itself an emigration country for many centuries, became a significant outlet for Italian migrants only in the latter part of the 19th century when rapid in- dustrialization converted it from a sending to a receiving country. 2. Italian migration to Switzerland began with the epoch of Swiss railroad building in the late 1850's which created a huge demand for con- struction labor that Switzerland itself could not supply and Swiss railroad companies began to recruit Italian construction workers on a large scale on a seasonal basis. The influx was greatly enhanced by the conclusion in 1868 of a treaty between Italy and Switzerland guaranteeing mutual freedom of movement, of trade and of establishment. No statistics are available but estimates place the number of annual seasonal migrants at 75-80,000 during the years immediately preceding the first World War.' 3. Not all of the migration from Italy remained seasonal. The build- ing of the Alpine tunnels provided year-round work opportunities for num- erous construction workers. In addition, the rapid expansion of Swiss in- dustries offered steady employment to increasing numbers of Italian workers at higher wages than could be obtained in Italy, especially during the quarter century preceding the First World War. No migration statistics are available but the Swiss decennial census, taken in December after the seasonal workers have returned home, shows that the number of Italian nationals among the * This is an expanded version of a paper submitted to the 1965 World Population Conference in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Fellowship support by the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the Social Science Research Council for this research is gratefully acknowl- edged.

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