The Italian diaspora
From 1870, after the unification of the Kingdom of Italy, the country became industrialized, but it struggled to catch up with its European neighbors. The majority of the Italian population was rural, and among them, 70% of citizens were farmers. Many live in poverty, cultivating a plot of land that is not sufficient to meet the needs of the household or are employed by large landowners for a miserable salary. A massive emigration movement began, with Italians moving to the industrialized regions of northern Europe and then to the New World, in order to improve their lot: this is what is known as the Italian diaspora. This is an essentially economic phenomenon, which will experience two waves of migration: the first between 1880 and 1914, the second after the Second World War.
The Italian diaspora was not limited to the south of Italy: in the north, Piedmont, Veneto and Friuli provided important contingents of candidates for emigration. In Friuli, the phenomenon was particularly noticeable between 1880 and 1915. Brazil and Argentina were among the preferred destinations, followed by the United States and Canada. After the Second World War, the majority of migrants (88%) went to the countries of northern Europe: first to Switzerland (47%), followed by France, Germany and Belgium. The situation of the Julian Veneto between 1954 and 1958 was particular: it became a land of welcome for refugees from Istria fleeing the regime of Marshal Tito, but at the same time many citizens elected Australia as their new home. Emigration was also internal, with Friulians choosing to move to the industrial triangle of Turin-Milan-Genoa in the midst of an economic boom.
In the 1960s, the phenomenon stopped and was even reversed in 1968 thanks to the economic recovery of the region linked to its industrial development.
Today, Friuli-Venezia Giulia has almost 1,200,000 inhabitants out of a total of 60,000,000 in Italy. Foreign citizens represent almost 9% of the total population of the region. The majority come from Eastern Europe (Romania, Albania, Ukraine, countries of the former Yugoslavia) and, to a lesser extent, from Bangladesh, Morocco and China.Trieste, an international city
Located at the crossroads of the Latin, Germanic and Slavic worlds, Trieste has a unique identity. Its history is marked by a continuous mixing of populations and cultures since antiquity. When the city was declared a free port in 1719, merchants from all over the world flocked to the city, further enhancing its cosmopolitan character. The tolerant policy of Maria Theresa of Austria towards foreigners and the practice of other religions favored the arrival of populations from all over Europe: Hungarians, Serbs, Croats, Albanians, Armenians, Swiss, English, Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews, and even aristocrats exiled from France after the French Revolution. Trieste was a multi-ethnic and multicultural city where the Slovenian community remained the most represented. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Slovene community was housed in the Casa Nazionale (Narodni Dom), a multi-functional building that included a theater, a bank, a café and a hotel (it was burned down by the Fascists in 1920). A 1910 census reported 57,000 Slovene-speaking residents out of a total population of 229,000 (and 118,000 Italian-speaking). After the Second World War, Trieste welcomed refugees fleeing the regime of Marshal Tito, and then the Yugoslavian war in 1992. At the dawn of the third millennium, Trieste remains an international city and its inhabitants have retained this spirit of openness to others.
Languages and dialects
In addition to the official language, Italian, there are three minority languages in Friuli-Venezia Giulia: Friulian, Slovenian and German.
Friulian
belongs to the Rhaeto-Romanic group of languages. Like Romansh spoken in Switzerland and Ladin from the Dolomite mountains, it is the result of an original linguistic mixture: Latin and Celtic languages. Friulian was later enriched by Slavic and Germanic contributions. It is currently estimated that about 600,000 speakers use Friulian in their daily lives. As a constituent element of the regional identity, it has been recognized as a historical minority language, which has led to its revaluation: Friulian is taught in schools and there are many local media in Friulian. Even RAI, the Italian public television, offers programs in Friulian. It is used in road signs with bilingual Italian-Friulian signs.Not surprisingly, Slovenian
, a language of the Slavic group, is spoken mainly in eastern Friuli, in the areas bordering Slovenia. In this area, about 61,000 speakers (just over 7% of the population) enjoy special legal protection: they can use their language in their dealings with the public administration and have schools where instruction is given in Slovene.German
, and more precisely a German dialect of the Bavarian branch, is spoken in several linguistic islands in the Carnic Alps near the Austrian border. Its speakers are concentrated in the villages of Sauris and Timau, as well as in the Val Canale, from Pontebba to the Val di Coccau via Tarvisio. German coexists with Friulian, Slovenian and Italian, and it is not uncommon to find people who speak all four languages well.The region also has countless Veneto dialects that are found in the coastal and lowland areas, historically under the influence of Venice. Each part of the territory has its own: veneto-pordenonese in Pordenone, veneto-marenese in Marano Lagunare, veneto-udinese in Udine... In Trieste, the triestino
dialect, of Venetian-Israeli root, has been progressively enriched with Greek, English and Friulian vocables. It is still spoken and maintained with great pride by the Triestinians. Finally, in the Val Resia, there is an idiom called resiano, which linguists consider an old Slovenian dialect - but its users maintain that it is a separate language!
