Thursday, April 14, 2016
Ormandy East (DoubleTree by Hilton Philadelphia Center City)
After World War I Italy gained control over two regions which formerly belonged to the Habsburg Empire: Venezia-Giulia and South Tyrol. Instead of a ‘homogenous’ Italian nation, ethnic minorities became a feature of the political and cultural landscape of the Kingdom. The Fascist regime conducted a fierce policy of Italianization of everything that was regarded ‘alien’: Slav and German schools were closed, names Italianized and clergymen persecuted. Whereas about 100.000 Slavs left, Germans more or less remained in Italy, in the hope that they would eventually be freed from the Italian yoke and reunited with Germany. When Mussolini realized that the assimilation strategy was not successful, he adopted another plan: “When ethnicity does not agree with geography,” he said, “it is ethnicity that must move”. How this notion was put into effect, how it affected ethnic minorities and Italians alike during the war and in the aftermath is the topic of my paper. I would like to address three questions: First, what were the underlying motives for flight and ‘forced migration,’ and did they change over time and in different areas? Second, how did refugees experience forced migration, and what were the social consequences for them and the communities they ended up in? Third, how does the Italian experience of expulsion and resettlement fit in the policy of the other powers? Fourth, did ‘cultural politics’ surrounding the migration movements (e.g., politics of memory; victim narratives) helped to form a specific national identity in the border regions and if so, how?
