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From immigrants to emigrants: Salesian education and the failed integration of Italians in Egypt, 1937-1960

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2017

Annalaura Turiano  and
Joseph John Viscomi
Annalaura Turiano*
Affiliation:
Aix-Marseille University, Aix-en-Provence, France
Joseph John Viscomi*
Affiliation:
Center for European and Mediterranean Studies, New York University, USA
*
* Emails: annalauraturiano@gmail.com; viscomi@nyu.edu
* Emails: annalauraturiano@gmail.com; viscomi@nyu.edu
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Abstract

With Italy’s entry into the Second World War, Anglo-Egyptian authorities repatriated Italian diplomats from Egypt, arrested around 5,000 Italians, and sequestered both personal and business accounts. Italian institutions were indefinitely closed, including the Italian state schools. Hope for a future in Egypt among the roughly 60,000 Italian residents faded. The Salesian missionary schools, whose goal since the late nineteenth century had been to inculcate nationalist-religious sentiment in Italy’s emigrants, remained the only active Italian educational institution by claiming Vatican protection. As such, the missionary schools assumed a central role in the lives of many young Italians. After the war, these same young Italians began to depart Egypt en masse, in part driven by the possibilities opened up by their vocational training. Building on diplomatic, institutional and private archives, this article demonstrates how the Salesian missionary schools attempted and failed to integrate Italian immigrants into the Egyptian labour force through vocational training. This failure combined with socio-economic and geopolitical changes to propel Italian departures from Egypt, making emigrants out of immigrants.

Italian summary

In seguito all’entrata dell’Italia nella seconda guerra mondiale, le autorità anglo-egiziane rimpatriarono i diplomatici italiani dall’Egitto, arrestarono circa 5.000 italiani e sequestrarono i conti personali e quelli aziendali. Le istituzioni italiane furono chiuse a tempo indeterminato, incluse le scuole statali italiane. La speranza di un futuro in Egitto per i circa 60.000 residenti italiani cominciava a svanire. Le scuole missionarie salesiane, il cui obiettivo fin dal diciannovesimo secolo fu quello di inculcare valori nazionali e religiosi agli emigrati italiani, rimasero le uniche istituzioni educative italiane attive, che si avvalsero della protezione vaticana. Gli istituti salesiani assunsero di conseguenza un ruolo centrale nella vita di molti giovani italiani. Dopo la guerra, questi stessi giovani cominciarono a partire dall’Egitto, in parte spinti dalle opportunità lavorative offerte dalla loro formazione professionale. Basandosi su documenti diplomatici e fonti d’archivio d’istituzioni pubbliche e private, il presente articolo analizza i tentativi delle scuole missionarie salesiane d’integrare gli italiani nella forza lavoro egiziana attraverso la formazione professionale e il loro definitivo fallimento. Oltre ai cambiamenti socioeconomici e geo-politici, questo fallimento favorì le partenze degli italiani d’Egitto, trasformandoli da immigrati in emigranti.

Keywords

Mediterraneanemigrationeducational reformSalesian missionary schoolstransnational Italy
Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , February 2018 , pp. 1 - 17
Copyright
© 2017 Association for the Study of Modern Italy 

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