Sicilian Americans

Sicilian Americans are the immigrants and their descendants from Sicily, a small island off the coast of Italy. In 2007 estimates, the population of Sicily was just over 5 million. Sicily is divided into nine provinces—Agrigento, Caltanissetta, Catania, Enna, Messina, Palermo, Ragusa, Syracuse, and Trapani. Sicilian Americans are a subset of Italian Americans and are often considered a separate group because of cultural and historical differences. This entry will look at the background of immigration from Italy, noting specific Sicilian patterns of immigration to the United States and the contemporary picture of Italian and Sicilian Americans.

Immigration Patterns

Italians settled in the United States in the late 17th century, but immigration trickled thereafter until the late 19th or early 20th centuries. The first subsequent immigration wave brought about 100,000 immigrants to the United States mainly for economic and political reasons. Many Italian Americans came from southern Italy and Sicily as rural peasants with little education. These early immigrants settled in urban areas, creating communities that supported their cultural heritage, and often referred to these neighborhoods as “Little Palermo/Sicily/Italy.”

Between 1850 and 1870, more Italians settled in New Orleans than in any other U.S. city. Many were able to find work in the cotton, vegetable, and fish markets. Between 1890 and 1900, about 656,000 Italians arrived in the United States, mainly settling in New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago. The number of [Page 1228]Italian immigrants swelled to more than 3 million between 1900 and 1920. In the following decades, the number of Italian immigrants dropped significantly, with only a slight rise between 1961 and 1970.