Rituals of Migration - (The Glucksman Irish Diaspora) by Kevin Kenny & Maddalena Marinari (Hardcover)

About the Book

"When people migrate, they often perform social and cultural rituals along the way. In a series of lively essays on Italian and Irish migrants from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, the authors of Rituals of Migration examine particular moments, actions, sentiments, and material objects in the process of migration-at the point of departure, in transit, and in the process of return"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Italian and Irish immigrant experiences

When people migrate, they often perform social and cultural rituals along the way. The idea of rites of passage--with its elements of preparation, departure, transit, admission, exclusion, expulsion, and return--helps us understand these moments in the process of migration in new and meaningful ways.

Rituals of Migration offers snapshots of Italian and Irish migrants on the move from the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. The essays in this volume examine the particular moments, actions, sentiments, and material objects in the process of migration--at the point of departure, in transit, and in the process of return. Because rites and rituals feature both nonverbal and verbal expression, migration history can be understood by studying physical objects as well as written sources. The authors focus on rituals created by migrants and their descendants, but they also consider the actions of officials who regulated migrants' departure, travel, admission, exclusion, and removal. By examining what people did, thought, felt, and packed on the eve of their departures, during their journeys, and when returning to their homelands, Rituals of Migration reveals how everyone involved in the immigration process, including the migrants themselves, the families they left behind, and those in charge of regulating their mobility, have tried to make sense of a process filled with peril, uncertainty, excitement, and opportunity.

Review Quotes

"In this splendid collection of essays, we encounter the literal rites of passage--the forms and habits by which both those who were leaving and those who were being left dealt with the great unknowns of emigration. Vivid, sympathetic and deeply moving, these essays reveal the intimacy and humanity behind the statistics."--Fintan O'Toole, author of We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland

"Places the Irish and Italian experiences of migration especially to the United States in the second half of the nineteenth century side by side, thus offering us a fresh and invigorating way of viewing both experiences. These essays analyze with nuance and complexity the ritual of departure in both societies, followed by the arduous journeys with their own grim rituals and then the possibility of return. Kevin Kenny and Maddalena Marinari have enriched and enlarged our understanding of the Irish and Italian diasporas."--Colm Tóibín, author of Brooklyn

"Takes us beyond the sensationalist headlines about migration crises and border securities to offer a humanizing portrait of migrants, their families, and the rituals they practice as they leave their homelands and journey to new lives. In doing so, this incredible book presents a compelling new way to understand migration and the emotional toll it exacts. An essential new contribution to the study of global migration past and present."--Erika Lee, Bae Family Professor of History and Radcliffe Alumnae Professor, Harvard University, and author of America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States

"Offers a very human journey into the lives of immigrant Irish and Italian families divided by distance and hardship. Careful research into Italian and Irish customs of a century and more ago provides new insights into two of history's greatest migrations--and a valuable framework for understanding the hopes and sorrows of today's migrants. Many readers will hear echoes of their own families in these accounts."--Paul Moses, author of An Unlikely Union: The Love-Hate Story of New York's Irish and Italians

About the Author

Kevin Kenny (Editor)
Kevin Kenny is Glucksman Professor of History and Director of Glucksman Ireland House at NYU and the author of The Problem of Immigration in a Slaveholding Republic: Policing Mobility in the Nineteenth-Century United States.

Maddelena Marinari (Editor)
Maddalena Marinari is Professor of History at Gustavus Adolphus College and the author of Unwanted: Italian and Jewish Mobilization Against Restrictive Immigration Laws, 1882-1965.