«Whether able to read or write». Studying to emigrate: schools for emigrants in the Giolitti era

Abstract

During the Giolitti era, reading tests imposed on foreign immigrants by some Anglo-Saxon countries prompted the Italian government to intensify its efforts to promote adult literacy. After preliminary, informal efforts, in 1911 the Italian Ministry of Education established a network of schools in the southern regions of the country for prospective emigrants bound for the Americas. This was not an unprecedented initiative; however, the novelty lay in the government’s focus on an educational sector that was assuming strategic importance. This is why the study presented here, in addition to illustrating the functioning of the schools set up by the Ministry of Education between 1911 and the beginning of the First World War, aims to show the interconnection between Italian school legislation and international politics at the beginning of the 20th century. After reviewing the legislation of the time and demonstrating how it responded to the need to circumvent the threat of foreign literacy tests, the article shows the organisation, programmes and timetables of state schools for prospective emigrants opened in Italy, highlighting how the acquisition of practical knowledge for organising the journey and settling in the destination countries was the primary objective. Drawing on archival documents from municipal administrations, the Central State Archive and the Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome, the article addresses a little-known topic and intertwines the history of pedagogy, the history of institutions and the history of Italian politics in accordance with the paradigm of global history and migratory circularity.