The “Double Absence” of the Immigrant and Its Legacy across Generations among Australians of Italian Origin

2020

Soc Anthropol

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This paper examines the spiritual kinship known in Italian as comparatico ‘godparenthood’, as it is practised among families originating from specific rural areas of Calabria, southern Italy, who live in Adelaide, South Australia. In the Catholic rite of baptism, the compare (godparent) is a person who promises to share the responsibility of the child’s education with the parents. For the participants of the present study, however, the relationship among compari (godparents) is much more than that, perhaps being better translated as ‘family allies’. Comparatico is a strong relationship that involves not merely the people directly concerned in the religious ceremony, but all members of the two families, leading to the creation of an extended and fictive family, or alliances across multiple families. The paper shows that such inter‐familial cooperation among migrants and their descendants appears to be highly visible among Italians originating from Calabria. Yet it questions why godparenthood ties are even present in a community of Calabrian‐Italian‐Australians. I draw on folklore and network theories particularly, and the Bourdieusian concept of social capital is especially crucial in interpreting the ties of family alliances that exist in the Calabrian diasporic community of Adelaide.

Section: Data and Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

Comparatico(godparenthood) as an emblematic form of social capital among Australian families originating from rural Calabria living in Adelaide, South Australia

2020

Soc Anthropol

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“…Salvatore's contributions seem not to differ from the widespread first generation's tendency of feeling a double absence, reported in a larger study (Marino, 2019a). Salvatore described himself as 'neither meat nor fish', reporting the feeling of 'not being at home' after several decades in Australia, and the struggle to 'find himself'.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

“…Rosa rejected her Italianness (and its attributes) as a result of her fallenness, which led her to conform to the expectations of her classmates and the Australian society of that time. That decision, according to Heidegger, brought her to exist in a form of inauthenticity characterised by a double form of inadequacy (see Marino, 2019a), feeling neither sufficiently Calabrian nor sufficiently Australian.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thrown into the world: The shift between pavlova and pasta in the ethnic identity of Australians originating from Italy

2019

Journal of Sociology

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Forty-one years on from Huber’s study exploring the assimilation of Italian-Australians, an increasing trend towards ethnic revival can be observed among the third generation of immigrants. Drawing on a case study of a family originating from Calabria in the 1950s and now living in Adelaide, South Australia, I find a widespread intergenerational identification of ethnicity as ‘being Italian’, which has different meanings across the three generations, depending on the individual’s phenomenological perception of being thrown into the world. A pivotal role in this shift of ethnic identity is played by what I refer to as institutional positionality, the individuals’ perceptions of the position of their ethnic ‘being in the world’. By merging sociology of migration, including the Bourdieusian conceptual apparatus of capital, with Heidegger’s existential theory, a reflexive framework is developed that takes into account the relevance of ontology in the field of migration.

“…Among the pioneering sociological research on Italian-Australians was Severino and De Corso (1985), which focused on the working-class experience and particularly on the children of immigrants, finding that young Italian-Australians had low self-esteem compared to their peers from Anglo-Saxon backgrounds. Many other studies have examined aspects of the lives of Italian-Australians from sociological and anthropological approaches (e.g., Baldassar 2001;Baldassar and Gabaccia 2011;Baldassar and Merla 2014;Bertelli 1987;Marino and Chiro 2014;Marino 2018Marino , 2019Sala and Baldassar 2017). One specific issue which has seen a great deal of research is that of gender, particularly in relation to the second generation, the children of Italian migrants to Australia (e.g., Vasta 1995;Baldassar 1998Baldassar , 2001.…”

Section: Studies Of Italian Migrants In Australiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Existing Research on Italian Migrants in the USA and Australia: A Critical Overview

The Palgrave Handbook of Citizenship and Education

2019

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This chapter provides a brief overview of the literature on Italian migrants in the USA and in Australia and the theoretical reference points on which different research studies are based. US literature was historically characterized by concepts of social change and assimilationist approaches whereby immigrant groups were expected to merge into general American culture. Some academic assumptions were maintained by later American sociologists studying Italian groups, although with new terminology, including urbanization, adaptation, accommodation, and social adjustment. In Australia, the rise of multicultural policies in the 1970s contrasted with the laissez-faire attitude to ethnic pluralism in the USA and led Australian literature to focus more on issues of cultural transmission and the construction of Italian ethnic groups. Australian studies, ranging across different disciplines, have examined the social organization of Italian migrants, mainly those from a working-class background and with a focus on domestic and family dynamics. More recently, both US and Australian studies have touched on matters of transnationalism, looking at issues such as the contemporary migration to the USA referred to as la fuga dei talenti ("the flight of the talented"), coexisting transnational contexts, gender, globalization, and matters of citizenship.