Quote:
Originally Posted by Steely Dan
my wife's roots are all chicago italian (with bona fide mafia shit in there too!), and her family definitely more closely identifies with their "italian-ness" than any of my "german" or "irish" relatives do with our alleged european ancestries.
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Funny and interesting... We've had lots of Italian immigrants because of Mussolini in my country too, and stereotype has it that Italian male old farts were sort of sectarian and superstitious.
Like when you weren't one of their relatives, they would regard you as a stranger and a rival, which involves a whole load of distrust.
If you had a relationship with one of their daughters, you'd better be good and faithful or they would ruin your life. Lol.
Notice that the older French weren't friendly to them either anyway. They were called "Macaroni", a racist and disparaging term, because many had to migrate to France and they were seen as an invasive people (pretty much like the Algerians today).
That was long ago. France and Italy are much the same anyway. Mostly Roman and Catholic and stuff, so younger generations don't care anymore.
The Italian descendants didn't really struggle too much to find success in France's society.
A lot of today's French elite has some more or less ancient Italian background.
It's only been slightly harder for those from Southern Italian provinces, because they are poorer than those from the North who're more used to an advanced economy.
Northern Italy is actually rich. Issues go to the South.