The Recent Italian Migration in Switzerland and the Concept of Italianity

Contemporary history has identified three big Italian migration movements to Switzerland: the big diaspora of the end of the nineteenth century, the period between the First and the Second World Wars and the diaspora movement from the end of the Second World War until the 1970s. After the Schwarzenbach initiatives and the oil crisis of the 1970s, Italian migration to Switzerland has decreased. However, with the beginning of the 2007–2008 global economic crisis, Italy has witnessed a large new diaspora movement to the traditional countries of migration. Academic studies have found that the most diffused narrative on the brain drain phenomenon is over-simplistic and needs to be re-examined and updated; notably that this diaspora in the age of globalization has new and complex layers. The aim of this chapter is to introduce the reader to the understanding of the recent Italian migration in Switzerland and the complex, ineffable notion of Italianity.