Diaspora or International Proletariat? Italian Labor, Labor Migration, and the Making of Multiethnic States, 1815-1939

We offer a transnational and comparative analysis of the "nationalization" of foreign-born workers in western nation states of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. An analysis of this complex historical moment is an important foundation for assessing present-day fears of the imminent collapse of nation states. Canadians and Italians wrestling with demands for regional autonomy; German and French voters opting for a "fortress Europe" united against new waves of migrations; and Americans anticipating the disintegration of the United States into ethnic and religious fragments, often believe that today's nation states face unprecedented threats to their unity. In fact, nation states have long faced competition from regional loyalties (Weber) and from the cultural diversity produced by international migrations and the globalization of capital (Potts; Cohen. New Helots; Strikwerda). In the past, they also faced internationalist labor movements dedicated to ending capitalist oppression around the world in all its forms

Autonomy · Capital (architecture · Diaspora · Economic history · German · Globalization · Oppression · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Proletariat · Sociology · History · Law · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy