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From an Italian Swiss Valley to Australia: A Study on Emigration and the Home Community
Author(s) -
Templeton Jacqueline
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
australian journal of politics and history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.123
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1467-8497
pISSN - 0004-9522
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8497.00004
Subject(s) - emigration , newspaper , threatened species , geography , political science , history , archaeology , law , ecology , biology , habitat
This paper discusses the origins of the emigration to Australia from a small and enclosed Swiss valley, the Poschiavo Valley in Canton Grigioni (the Grisons), in the 1850s. It argues that those left at home were a part of the same migration experience, and seeks, through the pages of a local newspaper, to direct attention to the question of how those emigrations were felt in home communities. It suggests that the emigration flow, although numerically small, and acknowledged as a necessity for survival, was traumatic, because the emigrants went beyond the recognised world of the Poschiavini, and threatened disintegration of traditional life and values.