Luca Cottini, PhD, sits down with City Life to discuss how Italian immigrant communities preserved and shared their heritage abroad.
In recent years, Canada has welcomed newcomers to support our economy and address labour-market needs. As a result, Canada’s demographic has rapidly changed, and many Canadians who once took pride in their country’s multiculturalism now feel as though their good nature, their hearts and minds and tax dollars have all been taken advantage of. With waves of immigrants arriving, the topic of “assimilation” has become increasingly relevant. What does assimilation truly mean? Is it an obligation or a choice?
These questions prompted me to reflect on the wave of Italian immigrants who came to Canada and the United States in the past — how they were received, how they assimilated, and the positive contributions they’ve made to the world. The changes and unfamiliarity that come with immigration, especially mass immigration, can lead to fear and uncertainty for newcomers and inhabitants. But when we think about immigration today, the history of Italian immigration serves as an important reference point for other immigrants to follow and a reminder to current inhabitants that newcomers are not destructive but are in search of a new horizon.
While it is important to acknowledge that every wave of immigration has its own particularities, we natives can be better at understanding and contextualizing a newcomer’s intention. Being a second-generation Italian- Canadian myself, I am the living embodiment of the dreams that my grandparents achieved.
City Life was honoured to sit down with Luca Cottini, Professor of Italian Studies at Villanova University, to explore the significance and impact of Italian immigration. Professor Cottini, a scholar of 20th-century Italian design and literature, is also an author and the creator of the YouTube channel Italian Innovators.
Q: As both a scholar and an observer of Italian culture abroad, what do you believe Italian immigrant stories can teach everyone about resilience, adaptation, and the meaning of cultural belonging?
A: Emigration is about memory and openness. The resilience of memory (as a continuous reminder of the origins) is a source of groundedness and belonging. The openness to change is the outcome of a genuine cultural encounter, which sees the new as an opportunity for growth, without ceding to the temptation of immediate judgment or return. Over the generations, migration can unfold as a story of failure or integration, either in the destination or in the land of origin. For those who remained in North America, Italian culture worked as a point of resistance to forced assimilation (at the time of imposed Americanization in the 1920s), a critical comparison to societal norms (in Italian-American literature), or an original stand against conformity. For those who returned to Italy, the encounter with American culture led to financial independence, intellectual emancipation, and entrepreneurial initiative. In both cases — and this applies to other groups — emigration coincided with the resource of a new open horizon, and the curse (or stigma) of moving out of a pre-established circle. In this sense, emigration mirrors the core plot of all fairytales. The hero who risked moving out of a safe space to journey into an uncharted territory endures trials and finds true happiness in a broader world.
“Learning another language equals to living a second life, inhabiting a second country, knowing a second market and, lastly, gaining a critical understanding of one’s own culture.”
Q: Italian migration to North America brought not only people but also traditions, values, and a sense of community. Which of these elements has proven most resilient across generations?
A: Italian travellers brought to America their culinary traditions, beliefs, and language. Food preserved memory through taste and defined a cultural identity, not just as a broad national reference, as we can witness in Little Italy neighbourhoods, but also as a regional marker, as we see from community traditions to handed-down family recipes. Italianità is also related to political or religious belief, from Garibaldi (whom President Lincoln unsuccessfully tried to lure to fight for the Union) to anarchists (who saw emigration as a social strike), from Saint Frances Cabrini (the patron saint of emigrants) to the missionary priests who served in the many national parishes across North America. Italians also brought to America their own language, first through opera (as records offered a portable structure to carry their cultural heritage) and then through academia, as Italian Studies grew in North America since the 1960s in connection with the economic boom. In our context, language has become a way to facilitate the creation of a market outside Italy, educate new customers, and move beyond a pre-existing migrant clientele. The Italian case illuminates the dynamics of other migratory groups and defines the long-term role of culture (e.g., culinary, political, religious, academic, and intellectual) as a privileged force of encounter and assimilation, promoting social integration and respect.
- Temporary resident arrivals — 673,650 (2025), 516,600 (2026), 543,600 (2027), with international students making up 59% (2026) and 56% (2027)
- Permanent resident admissions dropped to 395,000 (2025), 380,000 (2026), and 365,000 (2027)
*Information Sourced from Canada’s 2025–2027 Immigration Levels Plan
Q: Many second- and third-generation Italian-Americans and Italian-Canadians no longer speak the language fluently. What role does language loss — or revival — play in the preservation of cultural heritage?
A: Learning Italian is not just a way to recover the roots, but rather an opportunity to acquire a multilayered sense of the world. Learning another language equals living a second life, inhabiting a second country, knowing a second market and, lastly, gaining a critical understanding of one’s own culture. Not by chance, many writers intentionally write in another language to acquire genuineness of expression in their own and stir new ideas or creative associations, as seen from Polish writer Joseph Conrad, who wrote in English, to Italian writer Beppe Fenoglio, who wrote in English and translated himself into Italian to achieve the depth of his own language. In the same way, North American students of Italian can access a new depth in their cultural self- awareness by being exposed to another language and making it their own through writing and speaking.
