The Italians who Built Toronto

The Italians who Built Toronto
Author: Stefano Agnoletto
Publisher: Trade Unions. Past, Present and Future
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014
Genre: Construction industry
ISBN: 9783034317733

After World War II, hundreds of thousands of Italians emigrated to Toronto. This book describes their labour, business, social and cultural history as they settled in their new home. It addresses fundamental issues that impacted both them and the city, including ethnic economic niching, unionization, urban proletarianization and migrants' entrepreneurship. In addressing these issues the book focuses on the role played by a specific economic sector in enabling immigrants to find their place in their new host society. More specifically, this study looks at the residential sector of the construction industry that, between the 1950s and the 1970s, represented a typical economic ethnic niche for newly arrived Italians. In fact, tens of thousands of Italian men found work in this sector as labourers, bricklayers, carpenters, plasterers and cement finishers, while hundreds of others became contractors, subcontractors or small employers in the same industry. This book is about these real people. It gives voice to a community formed both by entrepreneurial subcontractors who created companies out of nothing and a large group of exploited workers who fought successfully for their rights. In this book you will find stories of inventiveness and hope as well as of oppression and despair. The purpose is to offer an original approach to issues arising from the economic and social history of twentieth-century mass migrations.

Righting Canada's Wrongs: Italian Canadian Internment in the Second World War

Righting Canada's Wrongs: Italian Canadian Internment in the Second World War
Author: Pamela Hickman
Publisher: Lorimer
Total Pages: 114
Release: 2012-10-10
Genre: Young Adult Nonfiction
ISBN: 145940095X

Italians came to Canada to seek a better life. From the 1870s to the 1920s they arrived in large numbers and found work mainly in mining, railway building, forestry, construction, and farming. As time passed, many used their skills to set up successful small businesses, often in Little Italy districts in cities like Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, and Winnipeg. Many struggled with the language and culture in Canada, but their children became part of the Canadian mix. When Canada declared war on Italy on June 10, 1940, the government used the War Measures Act to label all Italian citizens over the age of eighteen as enemy aliens. Those who had received Canadian citizenship after 1922 were also deemed enemy aliens. Immediately, the RCMP began making arrests. Men, young and old, and a few women were taken from their homes, offices, or social clubs without warning. In all, about 700 were imprisoned in internment camps, mainly in Ontario and New Brunswick. The impact of this internment was felt immediately by families who lost husbands and fathers, but the effects would live on for decades. Eventually, pressure from the Italian Canadian community led Prime Minister Brian Mulroney to issue an apology for the internment and to admit that it was wrong. Using historical photographs, paintings, documents, and first-person narratives, this book offers a full account of this little-known episode in Canadian history.

How the Italians Created Canada

How the Italians Created Canada
Author: Josie Di Sciascio-Andrews
Publisher: Dragon Hill Publishing
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2007
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

From the moment explorer Giovanni Caboto stepped onto Canadian soil, Italians have left their footprints on Canadian history. In the 1700s, Italians including Alphonse and Henri de Tonti came to New France to trade with the Natives and settle the vast land. In the 1800s, Italian workers built the foundation for railways and highways into Canada's northern forests. Today, Little Italy is a part of every major Canadian city. The Italian-Canadian vote is even credited with helping keep Canada together in Québec's sovereignty referendum.

Eh, Paesan!

Eh, Paesan!
Author: Nicholas De Maria Harney
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 226
Release: 1998-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780802080998

Today's Italian-Canadians face different images than previous generations. An exploration of the reproduction of cultural heritage in a global economy of rapid international communication.

An Italian Renaissance

An Italian Renaissance
Author: Robert Eli Rubinstein
Publisher: Urim Publications
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2010
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9789655240443

Recent decades have seen an outpouring of literature about the tragic destruction of European Jewry during the Second World War. Yet virtually nothing has been published about the astounding process of healing and recovery undergone by many survivors of the Holocaust, who had to overcome unspeakable personal trauma to build successful new lives. The present book, written with sensitivity and eloquence by the loving son of two such people, breaks important new ground in describing and shedding light on this remarkable phenomenon. The story follows Bela and Judit Rubinstein as they return from the camps at the end of the War, their families having been murdered by the Nazis. They flee Hungary and end up trapped in a refugee camp in northern Italy. Finally, an unforeseen opportunity arises to immigrate to Canada. The Rubinsteins establish a new home, raise a family, and integrate into the Toronto community. The book's universal message of hope is sure to inspire a broad range of readers.

Italians in Toronto

Italians in Toronto
Author: John E. Zucchi
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 284
Release: 1990
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780773507821

Italians in Toronto provides an insightful account of how village and regional groups transplanted their communities into the city that is now one of the largest expatriate centres for Italians in the world. The history of Italian migration to Canada is

Enemies Within

Enemies Within
Author: Franca Iacovetta
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 444
Release: 2000-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780802082350

Enemies Within is the first study of its kind to examine not only the formulation and uneven implementation of internment policy, but the social and gender history of internment. It brings together national and international perspectives.

Such Hardworking People

Such Hardworking People
Author: Franca Iacovetta
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 342
Release: 1992
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780773511453

Such Hardworking People provides a perceptive description of the working-class experiences of immigrants who came to Toronto from southern Italy between 1946 and 1965. Franca Iacovetta focuses on the relations between newly arrived workers and their families, showing that the Italians who came to Toronto during this period were predominantly young, healthy women and men eager to obtain jobs and prepared to make sacrifices in order to secure a more comfortable life for themselves and their children.

From Sojourners to Citizens

From Sojourners to Citizens
Author: Adriana Davies
Publisher: Guernica World Editions
Total Pages: 100
Release: 2021-05
Genre:
ISBN: 9781771836548

From Sojourners to Citizens: Alberta's Italian History brings to life the untold story of Italian immigrants in Alberta from the 1880s to the present. It places them in the narrative of province building from work on railways, mines and other industries to breaking the land for agriculture. Oral history excerpts allow the men, women and children to speak for themselves. What emerges is an unquenchable desire to make good, and overcome intolerable working conditions and discrimination, which culminated with enemy alien designation and internment during the Second World War. The book also provides an exploration of the impact of Government of Canada's multicultural policy on the process of assimilation for the post-war influx of immigrants. It offers a prototype of an immigrant community's movement from marginalization to the mainstream.