The Decimation of Philadelphia's Italian American Community? (how much, neighborhood)

[gwillyfromphilly]

Originally Posted by phillies2011

decimation? that's a really severe way to describe some people moving to the suburbs

The OP is making it seem like the Italian American population left the Philly region altogether and went to California or something.

[gwillyfromphilly]

Originally Posted by soug

Washington Township

Hammonton also.

[Snwmn5]

There's still a decent amount of Italian Americans in parts of South Philly, the Northeast, and Roxborough. Same thing with other blue collar first generation landing points in the area like Norristown, second and third generation become established, go to college, and move on.

There arnt many ethnic Irish people left in Grays Ferry either. Just the natural progression.

[soug]

I've heard an interesting story about Italians in South Jersey, but not sure if it's true.

Apparently during WWII, there were POW camps for the Italians soldiers located throughout SJ. They would be sent out to work in local farms which were owned by Italian Americans. Through talking, the POWs and locals would realize that they were actually related or had close relations or ancestral homelands. After the war, many of these POWs decided to just stay in SJ and became part of the community.

Again, not sure how true this is but an interesting story nonetheless.

[mancat100]

Originally Posted by soug

Washington Township

And then they complain about how South Philly used to be so nice and it's just not the same anymore.

[Larry Bowa]

Originally Posted by HeavenWood

Plenty in the suburban PA counties as well (particularly DelCo).

And NE Philly.

[s1oozne]

Originally Posted by rotodome

The great wave of Italian immigration is long over. And when you get into the 3rd, 4th, and 5th generation, immigrant communities just tend to start to drift and fall apart. It's the same story with basically every Italian American community in the United States.

Exactly what I was going to post, but I'll add on that plenty of them went back to Italy as well.

It's easy for people to judge these white ethnic groups for moving to the suburbs (not saying that you in particular are) but they lived in cramped, dirty, industrial, working class neighborhoods that were basically de-facto ghettos and honestly if it weren't for opportunities due to things like the GI Bill probably would still be living there to this day. It might have been better for the city's stability but it wouldn't have been better for them. Most of the kids in the suburbs are in the position they're in because their parents or grandparents or great grandparents moved out of those neighborhoods into the brand-spanking new suburbs, many of them because they went out and did courageous things overseas that many of us couldn't even fathom.

It is definitely a shame that every white ethnic group from that time has become "white" and completely lost who they are and what they come from in large numbers, but they wanted to get out of their neighborhoods and the only way they would ever have a chance of not facing discrimination from those who were already in the suburbs was to assimilate and Americanize. This is the case with the Irish and other pale-skinned groups much moreso than the Italians though, because you can almost always pick an Italian-American out from a crowd.

Obviously there's the whole racism/white flight aspect but it's much more complex than that and started happening well before that white flight/race tensions era even began.

[s1oozne]

This is a bit off-topic but since somebody brought up the Irish I figured I would mention that there are actually a ton of people who are first and second generation Irish immigrants in this area, and there were even more than before so many of them went back to Ireland during the Celtic Tiger boom. They especially settled in Upper Darby/Drexel Hill and Havertown.

[nephi215]

The city of Philadelphia still has the second largest Italian American population in U.S after New York city and like Philly, even New York city's Italian American population has declined. A decent amount of areas in South Philly are still heavily Italian. The Italians that left South Philly are mostly in South Jersey, Delco or scattered throughout the rest of the city (northeast Philly, northwest Philly, etc).

[Infinite_heights77]

Is it wrong of me to say that is a sad state of affairs?

Originally Posted by rotodome

The great wave of Italian immigration is long over. And when you get into the 3rd, 4th, and 5th generation, immigrant communities just tend to start to drift and fall apart. It's the same story with basically every Italian American community in the United States.