EMIGRATION FROM FRIULI TO FRANCE BETWEEN 1820 AND 1970 Matteo Ermacora*

1820-1914 – Mosaic workers, terrazzo workers and bricklayers in France. The first to arrive in this transalpine republic at the beginning of the nineteenth century were small groups of mosaic workers and terrazzo workers from the right bank of the Tagliamento river, who devoted themselves to the restoration of ancient Roman mosaics and to the decoration of public and private palaces, using innovative techniques. The urban sprawl which occurred at the end of the century further attracted bricklayers and stone masons from the mountain areas and nearby valleys; in any case the migratory flows towards France were considerably fewer compared to those directed towards the neighbouring Empires of Central Europe.

1. The origins. A possible destination, but a secondary one Until the years after the First World War, France was an exceptional destination for Friulian workers compared to the migration flows to the Central Empires. According to official statistics, in the period between 1876 and 1915 the overall number of emigrants headed for France was 19,713, rather meagre (equal to 2.2%) when compared to the streams directed towards Germany and Austria. 1 From the start emigration in this country remained limited to small groups of terrazzo workers and mosaic workers from the right bank of the Tagliamento River who, after having worked in the regions of Lombardy and Piedmont, moved over to France to carry out decoration works in public and private palaces. Around the middle of the nineteenth

* Professor and researcher in social history at the University of Venice Cà Foscari, expert in the subject. 1 My revision of extracts from B.M. Pagani, L’emigrazione friulana dalla metà del XIX secolo al 1940 , , Arti Grafiche Friulane, 1968, pp. 33; 98; Emigration from Veneto and Friuli towards France in the years 1909-1913 represented an average of 4.8% of the continental flows at that time. M. Fracca , La forza di espansione della popolazione veneta , in «Quaderno mensile dell’Istituto federale di credito per il Risorgimento delle Venezie», Venezia, Ferrari, 1924, p. 25; Commissariato Generale dell’Emigrazione, Annuario statistico dell’emigrazione italiana 1876- 1925 , Roma, 1926, tav. II e III, p. 101. century the finding of mosaics dating to Roman times attracted workers from Sequals for the restoration works in Montpellier, Béziers and Nîmes. 2 This presence of skilled workers strengthened gradually: the ministerial inquiries carried out in the years 1884-1885 and 1888 signalled the presence on the other side of the Alps of terrazzo workers and furnace workers from , of road workers from , of mosaic workers, stonecutters and terrazzo workers from Sequals and of stone masons from . The skilfulness of these workers was recognised and appreciated, to the extent that during this period some groups started to head for Germany, Holland, Denmark and the United States. 3 The dynamism of the Friulian mosaic industry in France during the second half of the nineteenth century is without doubt related to the entrepreneurial success of Gian Domenico Facchina; born in Sequals in 1826 and educated in and Venice. Around the middle of the century Facchina moved to Montpellier where he devoted himself to the restoration of antique flooring, experimenting an innovative technique– which meant a considerable lowering of production prices and a rapid execution of the work that guaranteed him an increase in orders. His skill in putting together Roman, Venetian and Byzantine artistic techniques and traditions allowed him to work in the French capital, where, after having taken part in the world exhibition of 1867, he was commissioned the decoration of the Opera House. Up to 1904, the year in which he died, Facchina divided his time between his workshops in Venice and Paris, and thus represented one of the driving forces of emigration for mosaic workers and terrazzo workers towards France, many of whom – like the Odorico brothers – after a period of apprenticeship, set up their own businesses working in other French towns. 4 The expansion of the sector of mosaic decorations spurred the establishment of many family businesses during the last decade of the nineteenth

2 L. Zanini, Friuli migrante , Udine, Doretti, 1964, p. 153; 155. 3 G. Colledani and T. Perfetti (eds.), Dal sasso al mosaico. Storia dei terrazzieri e mosaicisti di Sequals , Sequals, Comune di Sequals, 1994; O. Lorenzon-P. Mattioni, L’emigrazione in Friuli , Udine, Administration of the , 1962, p. 33. 4 Zanini, Friuli migrante above, pp.159-170; G. Colledani, Giandomenico Facchina: da Sequals a Parigi , in «Il Barbacian», XXX (1993), n. 1, pp. 11-13. century and broadened the area from where specialist workers left, including the areas of , and . 5 The seasonal flows of terrazzo workers, mosaic workers and decorators intensified in the course of the first decade of the twentieth century, as demonstrated by the enquiry carried out by Guido Picotti, Inspector of Employment, in 1909. However, at the turn of the century these experts were joined by teams of bricklayers and stone masons from the mountain areas of Pordenone and Carnia. In fact, stonecutters from left in the years 1898 and 1899 for the mines of Lorraine and Paris, where they built the metro stations. 6 The reports by the parish priests of the Diocese of Udine in the period between 1911 and 1914 confirm that by then emigration towards France had also involved builders from the areas situated at the foot of the mountains (, Pioverno, , Alesso) and from Carnia (-Chiaicis, , , , ). 7 As well as these “traditional” professions, the parish priest of Ampezzo mentioned the migration in 1911 of tailors headed for Marseille and Paris, 8 while some groups of furnace workers from and and Central Friuli headed for Alsace-Lorraine, travelling along the much disputed border between France and Germany and Austria. Therefore, between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries France established itself as one of the possible destinations of Friulian emigration, but it mostly remained a transit area for those who, having reached the French ports, set sail for Canada. In spite of this, news of what was happening in this country the other side of the Alps reached Friuli, leaked out by the press or by those few workers who went there. Just to mention a few: the rise of the French trade union movement, the episodes of

5 M. Ermacora, Imprenditoria migrante. Costruttori e imprese edili friulane all’estero (1860-1915) , in F. Merluzzi (ed.), Baumeister dal Friuli. Costruttori e impresari edili migranti nell’Ottocento e primo Novecento , Udine, Grop Pignot, 2005, p. 117. G. Cosattini, L’emigrazione temporanea del Friuli , Udine-Trieste 1982, (1903), p. 41; 130; 137. 6 J.B. Candotti, C’era una volta in Carnia. (Ricuarz di un frut) , , Coordinamento circoli culturali della Carnia, 1997, p. 17; 87. 7 Archives of the Archiepiscopal Administration of Udine (later refered to as Acau), vol. 8 (Enemonzo 1913, file n. 75; 1913, file n. 77, Raveo 1913, file n. 79), vol. 12 (Lauco 1914, file n. 113); vol. 15 (Alesso 1911, file n. 147; Montenars 1916, file n. 152), vol. 16 (Venzone 1916, file n. 164). 8 Acau, vol.8, Ampezzo 1911, file n. 74. xenophobia against the Italian workers in Aigues Mortes in 1893, and furthermore the many cases of exploitation of glassworkers. 9

1915-1918 – The interval of the Great War The Great War was a real turning point in the history of Friulian migration; in August 1914 this military event caused the repatriation of about 80,000 workers from the Empires of Central Europe, it changed the traditional migration flows and increased the role of the state in regulating the permits to leave the country.

2. A forgotten episode. Friulian refugees in France between 1917 and 1919 The Great War caused the end of migrations towards the Empires of Central Europe, by requiring manpower for the logistical works to be carried out at the front and behind the lines, but it also presented the possibility of new ways of moving abroad on the basis of the economic and military agreements between allied countries. Indeed, during 1917, the Italian government, through the General Commission of Emigration, recruited in successive stages about 35,000 builders and labourers to be used as military workers to build defence lines, roads, railways and canals behind the lines of the French front. 10 Between December 1917 and January 1918, after the rout of Caporetto, these forces were increased with about two thousand refugee workers from Friuli, mainly from Carnia and the areas around Gemona, very often including young teenagers, who wished to escape the precarious nature of refugee life. Having left from Lombardy, Piedmont and that part of Veneto not occupied, the groups of refugees worked for the American and French troops, and for the Italian expeditionary force. 11 Archive documents and military reports tell about a great number of workers who were injured and ill because of the difficult living and working conditions; as Carissimo Ferro, a worker from Nespoledo, recalled:

9 F. Micelli, Geografie dell’emigrazione: i friulani in Francia (1919-1926) , in «Metodi e Ricerche», n.s. XVII (1998), n.1, p. 40. 10 National Central Archives (Archivio Centrale di Stato - Acs), Rome, General Secretariat for Civil Affairs, b. 512, Italian Military Mission. Royal inspector of emigration. Report, 30 April1917. On employment during the conflict, see M. Ermacora, Cantieri di guerra. Il lavoro dei civili nelle retrovie del fronte italiano (1915-1918) , Bologna, Il Mulino, 2005. 11 Acs, High Commissioner of War Refugees, b.33.

We were there [in France] for two months, from December 1917 to January 1918. […] We were building an airfield. After that we were meant to build a hospital made of sheds. But we were not well. At night, we were forced to leave and go to hide in the woods. The Germans bombed because they saw works going on there. We were close to the front, towards Germany and Austria. It was horribly cold. […] In France they fed us badly. For food they gave us those rice loaves and I finished mine all in one meal. Afterwards, in the evening, it was terrible. We went to sleep crying with hunger. 12

The last groups came back to Friuli during the spring of 1919; this dramatic experience also strengthened their knowledge of France and cast light on the ample possibilities of employment which would come with reconstruction. In the meantime, workers came back home hoping to find a job in their homeland.

1919-1924 – The difficult years following the war and the revival of emigration The difficulties of reconstruction in Friuli and the rampant unemployment urged workers to cross the borders once again, no longer towards the Empires of Central Europe prostrated with the war but towards France, which required manpower to get on with the reconstruction of the areas devastated by the fighting. The revival of expatriation, which was arranged on the basis of collective labour agreements between the governments, was surrounded by high social tension and caused a debate between the main political parties on the needs and ways of emigration.

3. Towards France

12 I. Urli, Bambini nella grande guerra , Udine, Gaspari, 2003, p. 151. At the end of the Great War Friuli was drained by the destruction caused: the systematic plundering carried out by the German and Austrian army in 1917 and 1918 had in fact destroyed the agricultural and industrial sectors; the financial difficulties faced by the Italian government made it impossible to set up a concrete plan for public reconstruction works. The repatriation of refugees and the demobilization of the army increased unemployment (which reached 80,000 to 100,000 units between 1919 and 1921) and internal tensions. The years following the war were therefore marked by the urgency to start again: with the flows towards the Empires of Central Europe blocked because of the standstill in building works, Friulian workers headed mainly towards France, where great losses had occurred during the conflict and new forces were needed to start the reconstruction of the areas devastated by the fighting. The possibilities of employment in the country on the other side of the Alps soon clashed with the governments’ wishes to regulate migratory flows; in particular, the treaty signed by France and in 1919, although considerably advanced, in the situation following the war turned out to be a real hindrance to Friulian emigration because it subjected the granting of a passport to an employment contract and consular authorisation. The bureaucratic delays and the concomitant pressures by the working classes – between 1919 and 1920 the demonstrations and upheavals by the unemployed were innumerable – caused a lively debate between the various political parties, divided between the control and liberalization of expatriation. As was to be expected under the circumstances, what prevailed was the need for a ‘safety valve’, and so started a succession of missions by catholic and socialist leaders with the aim of establishing relationships with the French authorities and direct the unemployed towards this country on the other side of the Alps. The first phase of emigration was therefore managed on the basis of collective labour agreements signed between the General Commission of Emigration and the Friulian provincial authorities. An equally important role in finding employment was played by the French catholic secretariats and the network of assistance set up by the “Opera Bonomelli” in Paris and Grenoble. 13 It is significant that the first to leave were the workers from the right bank of the Tagliamento River, who already knew France: since the end of 1919 the entrepreneurs of this area had in fact begun to undertake contracts for the reconstruction of the villages destroyed around Verdun and to recruit manpower. The Secretariat of Emigration in Pordenone itself in 1921 noted the growing number of departures for France from the areas on the right bank of the Tagliamento. 14 The first flows were made up of furnace workers, cement layers and miners, who were soon joined by bricklayers from the mountains and nearby valleys. However, the restriction placed on entries by the French government at the end of 1920, together with the presence of agents and brokers in the province and the strict controls carried out at the borders, fuelled a substantial illegal emigration across the Alps (Frejus, Mount Blanc, Saint Bernard). In the middle of the 1920s, because of the added closure of the Swiss market, workers travelled increasingly long journeys (already well known), entering France after having crossed through Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg. 15 France rapidly became the main emigration destination within Europe. According to statistics, from an initial 1,224 emigrants in 1919 the number reached 16,554 in 1920, and went above 28,000 in 1922. Mainly because of the arrivals through the spontaneous migratory chains, which were higher than those following the organized routes, in 1923 there were about 40,000 Friulian emigrants in France. They spread across the whole territory, but the highest concentrations were in Paris, the point of arrival for bricklayers, and the areas of the North, the destination for furnace workers and miners. 16 The furnaces of French bricks and tiles (so called “briqueterie” and

13 Micelli, Geografie dell’emigrazione , above, pp. 37-49. 14 Relazione morale e finanziaria del segretariato di emigrazione e lavoro di Pordenone per l’anno 1921 , (Moral and financial report from the secretariat of emigration and employment of Pordenone for the year 1921), Pordenone, 22 February 1922. 15 Ufficio provinciale del Lavoro di Udine (Employment Office of the Province of Udine), Relazione morale per il 1921 , Udine, Stab. Tip. S. Paolino, 1921, p. 7; J. Grossutti, Le cooperative di lavoro dei muratori friulani in Francia tra le due guerre , in «Metodi e Ricerche», n. s. XXII, 2003, n.1, pp. 146-147. 16 E. Franzina, La crisi del sistema di assistenza e la chiusura degli sbocchi emigratori , in Veneto Ribelle. Proteste sociali, localismo popolare e sindacalizzazione , Udine, Gaspari, 2001, p. 223, n.60. “tuilerie”) became the main destination for workers from Central Friuli and the areas around the hills who could no longer emigrate to Austria or Bavaria. The case of Buja is a clear example: here in 1922 up to 1,585 passports were issued, of which 643 were for France, 239 for Luxembourg and 8 for Belgium, thus testifying the change in direction of the flows in the years immediately following the war but also a considerable drop. 17 Starting in 1923 the Friulian Fascist Federation, after having eliminated the socialist competition, by establishing a new organization the “Institute for Emigration of Friuli” (Istituto Friulano per l’Emigrazione), managed to gain the confidence of nearly half the emigrant workers and to continue organizing expatriations. During the twenties, workers were mostly directed towards the mines of Lorraine and Meurthe et Moselle, and the furnaces in the areas of the North. The protection and employment of manpower became subordinated to new needs of control and propaganda, to the extent that the migratory movement started to be used in a nationalist perspective, as an instrument to spread a sense of Italian identity. 18

1919-1925 – Emigration, the cooperative movement and antifascism Since 1919 emigration towards France distinguished itself by the presence of entrepreneurs and cooperatives which undertook contracts and reconstruction work. This process, an outcome of the radicalization of the workers’ movement in the difficult years following the war, also emerged as the expression of their awareness of the competences accumulated in Germany and Austria and of the will to present themselves with pride and professionalism. Soon legal and illegal migration took over from the placements regulated by governments, and secretariats, and the migratory chain was fuelled by unemployment and the desire to escape from the Fascist regime.

17 G. Ellero, Buja. Terra e popolo, Udine , Arti Grafiche, 1984, p. 137; T. Tomat, L’emigrazione da tra le due guerre , Udine, Comune di Fagagna, 2004, p. 59. 18 P.P. Pillot-L. Camisa, Il primo dopoguerra nel Friuli Occidentale (1919-1923) , Pordenone, Concordia Sette Editions, 1997, pp. 136-137; 144-145; G. L. Bettoli, Una terra amara. Il friuli Occidentale dalla fine dell’Ottocento alla dittatura fascista , Udine, Ifsml, 2003; M. Puppini, L’emigrazione politica dal Friuli in Francia tra le due guerre , in «Storia contemporanea in Friuli», XXXI (2001), n.32, pp. 101-102. 4. Friulian cooperatives in France between 1922 and 1927 The lack of reconstruction works in Friuli caused by the failure on behalf of the Italian government to pay the contractors, the high levels of unemployment and the first signs of tension with the fascist action squads pushed even the socialist organizations to emigrate. In 1922 the Consortium of work cooperatives of Carnia (which pooled together 33 cooperatives and up to 4,000 workers) moved to France, seeking to win the tenders for the reconstruction of the areas at the front, and in particular to Soisson, the reconstruction of which was entrusted to the cooperative “Alba Proletaria” of , but also to other towns such as Eguzon, Paris, Trier, Marseilles and Amiens, where in 1923 the work cooperative “Val Pesarina” transferred itself. This new situation had its roots in the period preceding the conflict: the socialists had in fact seen cooperation as a useful instrument for undertaking work abroad in a protected way, through the federation of cooperatives and the winning of tenders. The war had brought an abrupt end to these projects, but they were resumed in the years immediately following the war, spurred by necessity but also by the significant development of the socialist movement in the two “red years”. The awareness of their professional expertise, and the experience gathered abroad, made it possible for Friulian emigrants to arrive in France prepared, able to participate in the tenders for building works on an equal level, with their own manpower, capital and management. 19 These migratory movements were strongly characterized by a political dimension; the violence of the fascist regime and the killing of Matteotti caused many socialist, communist and anarchic workers to leave Friuli, leading to the collapse of the work cooperatives in the country and the stark electoral defeat of socialism in Carnia. 20 France soon became the point of reference for all antifascist emigrants and for the parties’ leaders in exile. This phase of migration movements also came to represent a

19 Grossutti, Le cooperative di lavoro dei muratori friulani , above, p. 140. 20 M. Puppini, Economia e società nella valle del Lago tra fine’800 e seconda guerra mondiale , in Val del Lâc , Udine, Philology Association of Friuli (Società Filologica Friulana), 1987, pp. 194-197; S. Zilli, Geografia elettorale del Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Consenso, territorio e società 1919-1996 , Udine, Ifsml, 2000, pp. 60-61; F. Bof, La cooperazione in Friuli e nella Venezia Giulia dalle origini alla seconda guerra mondiale , Udine, Arti Grafiche 1995, p. 56. symbol of the fight against fascism, which started in Italy in the years immediately following the war, then moved to France, continued with the civil war in Spain and finally ended with the participation of emigrants in the partisan battles in France and Italy. 21 Because of emigrants leaving with the cooperatives or with small entrepreneurs, political dissent was closely connected to the urgent need for work and employment. During their exile in France, army cadres and simple militants completed their political formation, which had already started in Germany and Austria. The letters written by workers abroad testify their pride in reaffirming their political identity, emphasizing their “freedom” and the positive work opportunities available in France. Political affinities, work and a general feeling of solidarity therefore animated these groups of political exiles – socialists, communists and anarchists – who from Colugna, , , Venzone and the areas of the right bank of the Tagliamento decided to move to France, where they were able to live freely, recreating a “small homeland” formed by the communities of immigrants, as well as starting new professional experiences and reorganizing the workers’ movement. Recent studies carried out on the basis of documentation of the fascist political police (the so called “ Casellario politico centrale ”), which controlled the exponents of antifascism living abroad, confirm that the “economic” and “political” components were not only tightly connected but also fed on each other, allowing the recruitment of emigrants and at the same time stimulating the will to be politically and socially emancipated. 22 The activities of cooperatives started to show signs of breakdown in the second half of the 1920s, when the economic situation in France worsened; the difficult working conditions, the scarcity of available capital and the insolvency of the French contracting businesses caused a gradual dissolving of the cooperatives. 23 Despite this, the initial experience of the cooperatives represented for many workers an important

21 Puppini, L’emigrazione politica dal Friuli in Francia cit., p. 100; 103; 104-117; P. Mattioni, Aspetti economici e vicende migratorie in Friuli durante il fascismo , in «Storia contemporanea in Friuli», nn. 2-3, pp.134-135. 22 Referring to J. Grossutti-F. Micelli (ed.), L’altra Tavagnacco. L’emigrazione friulana in Francia tra le due guerre , , Municipality of Tavagnacco, 2003. 23 C. Puppini, Cooperare per vivere. Vittorio Cella e le cooperative carniche 1906-1938 , , «Gli Ultimi», 1988, pp.136-149. opportunity for social and political union, and also acted as an instrument that made it less difficult for them to integrate at work and to have contact with French society.

1919-1939 – Flows, destinations, trades In the time between the two wars, emigration towards France appeared to involve – albeit with different intensities – nearly all the areas of Friuli and Venezia Giulia. In this period around 100,000 Friulians reached France, which thus established itself as the principal destination on the continent. Furnace workers and bricklayers, to a lesser extent hod carriers and miners, formed a great part of the migratory flows. While builders were attracted mostly to the capital and to the areas of the north-east, the theatre of war, miners and furnace men headed towards Normandy and the mineral fields in Alsace-Lorraine. In the second half of the twenties, other flows of bricklayers and farmers favoured the south of France, and in particular the south-west. Soon enough the presence of Friulians, previously limited to a specific destination which had often been determined by the need for a certain profession and other factors of attraction, extended to the whole of France thanks to a high internal mobility. During the thirties, the initial departures of single men were followed by family reunions, but also new migrations made up of housemaids, dress makers, waitresses, and shop assistants who were headed towards Paris and the great cities, and new waves of labourers, tenant farmers and hod carriers headed towards the countryside. Departures from the country, particularly intense during the first half of the Twenties (counting up to 25,000 - 30,000 units a year), significantly reduced in the course of the following ten years (going down to 3,000 – 5,000 units a year) because of the world economic crisis of 1929 and of the restrictive policies which the French and Fascist governments embarked upon. Apart from experiencing a slight upturn in the times of greater crisis (1931-1933; 1934- 1935), migration flows were redirected by the regime first towards the colonies (Libya, East Africa) and afterwards towards Hitler’s Germany which was preparing for war.

5. Maçons. The routes of the building trade In France, Friulian workers mostly settled in the building sector, which was preferred not only because of the absence of local manpower but also by the fact that this sector was structured in small craft businesses. The great works that needed to be done in the years immediately following the war urged French entrepreneurs to make substantial use of subcontract work and of the groups of piece-workers formed by immigrants. In spite of a few crises related to the existing economic situation (in 1921 and 1927), the French labour market managed to easily absorb the arriving flows, so much so that Friulian cooperatives and the workers themselves were able to carve a niche and create a sort of internal job market, practically autonomous, which was supplied by the new arrivals – often illegal – from Friuli. With regard to this it is significant to read the memoirs of Pietro Candolini, who left from Interneppo at the young age of 15 in 1924:

We were forced to travel by train through Austria and Germany and Austria, because Switzerland would not let us through, even with passports […]. In France there were already two or three people from Interneppo and they called whoever wanted to go to work … bit by bit it ended with us all being in France. 24

Soon enough the spontaneous migratory chains prevailed on the organized flows, since those who left could benefit from the intermediation of their relatives and fellow country men already living in this country across the Alps. Once the phase of post-war reconstruction was over, Friulian builders and small entrepreneurs moved closer to the capital, in the central and western areas of France. Paris and its expanding suburbs, as well as the urban development of small and big towns were in fact able to offer many opportunities for employment to bricklayers, cement layers,

24 Personal testimony quoted in A. Verrocchio (ed.), Bordan e Tarnep. Int pal mont , Udine, Arti Grafiche, 1991, pp. 127-128. painters and carpenters. Work in the building sector did not always follow consistent patterns, as testified by the accounts of many workers who had found employment first in the Belgian furnaces and mines and, when their contracts had terminated, remained abroad travelling to France in search of better and more profitable jobs in the building sector. The stories of builders highlight some common traits: the departure at a young age following their father or brothers, the mediation of relatives or fellow country men in getting a place in the building sector, the job as hod carrier in the French or Italian businesses, the subsequent promotion to assistant bricklayer, then to skilled bricklayer and finally reaching the position of “chef d’équipe” (team leader). In the years following the First World War, Friulian workers made their way autonomously in the reconstruction and repairing works, thanks to the fact that they were able to do various jobs (bricklayers, cement layers, plasterers, terrazzo workers, carpenters). But in the case of building new structures, they tended to stay in subordinate positions in the French businesses because of the different building methods adopted. 25 Property development required a lot of manpower and at a good price, although contracts provided for an hourly rate and eight hours work, due to the favourable exchange rate and high salaries, Friulian workers accepted piecework and an extension of their hours. French employers, on the other hand, exploited the manpower formed by Italian and Friulian immigrants, who often found themselves in competition against Polish workers. Almiro Rossi, who had emigrated at a very young age in 1929 to follow his other three brothers, remembered the work on the sites of the Parisian outskirts as follows:

On the sites we worked up to 14-15 hours a day; in the morning we would prepare the mortar for the day, and then we would work until there was light. We were paid according to what we produced: I was quite strong, I managed to carry the mortar on the scaffolding so the

25 J. Grossutti, Le scelte migratorie a Tavagnacco, Feletto Umberto e : tra Francia e Argentina (1919-1939) , in Micelli-Grossutti (ed.), L’altra Tavagnacco above, pp. 142-143. employers would give me a couple of extra francs […]. After six months I spoke French well, also because my brothers always sent me to fetch the things they needed and to do the shopping, so I had to learn to get by. 26

These experiences often proved themselves to be difficult; accounts left by builders often highlight the precariousness of the working and living conditions (long journeys by foot to reach the sites, 10-12 hours work a day even on Saturdays, precarious housing). But they also mention the hospitality and the friendship struck with the serving girls at the inns were they found board and lodging for a reasonable price. Some workers were able to learn French and also attended evening classes, thus improving their position. They soon became points of reference for the newly arrived emigrants, since they were able to fill in the documents for entry and help in settling into a job and finding a house.

6. From cooperatives to entrepreneurship in the years of the great crisis The case of France highlights the remarkable capacity to adapt to the new employment context demonstrated by Friulian manpower thanks to the experience and competences previously gathered in Germany and Austria. In particular, the so called “ poliers ” and the head workers in charge of recruiting and instructing the employees were initially figures of reference within the building cooperatives and then became actual entrepreneurs. French surveys and recent researches report that the phenomenon was particularly widespread, and in 1926 there were over 7,000 Italian heads of businesses. 27 While few managed to make their way as actual builders, a considerable number of workers attempted the entrepreneurial path in sectors such as painting, cleaning the fronts of buildings and decorating, activities

26 Personal testimony quoted in A. Verrocchio (ed.), Bordan e Tarnep cit., p.123. 27 Grossutti, Le cooperative di lavoro dei muratori friulani in Francia above, pp. 137-148. where it was not necessary to possess great amounts of capital and where it was possible to exploit the labourers to the full, on whom difficulties and insolvencies were often vented. The possibility of organizing manpower at a low cost – guaranteed by the continuous influx of emigrants, both legal and illegal – thus favoured the expansion of entrepreneurial activity. The scarcity of capital, on the other hand, was compensated by the subcontracted work which allowed the limiting of investments and the division of the business activities into a range of small scale jobs, the payment of which reduced financial exposure. By sharing the same spaces, and living in the immigrant community, small Friulian entrepreneurs were able to exchange information, recruit manpower, collaborate in carrying out subcontract work and share out the available jobs. Aside from the building contractors there was also a wide intermediate category of foremen, the so called “ tacherons ” (usually bricklayers, plasterers, painters specialised in buildings, including many Italians from Friuli, Piedmont, Sicily and Lombardy), who were entrusted with the responsibility for a small part of the site by the business that had employed them. The main activity of these “ tacherons ”, however, was to act as intermediaries and recruit the teams of workers to be employed for piece work, thus guaranteeing the entrepreneur low costs and high productivity. 28 Often the position of “tacheron” represented the first step up the path needed to become a building contractor or the owner of a building company from being a simple employee. 29 The move to entrepreneurship became more marked in the years of the great crisis 1929-1933, when Friulian manpower paid dearly for the excessive specialization of its professions with a high unemployment rate and with the increasing hostility of French building contractors. This period of crisis was marked by an obsessive search for jobs; between 1932 and 1934 the precariousness was sharpened by the strict measures that the French government implemented to defend its “national” employment. The number of foreigners allowed was limited in all production sectors, controls were tightened, identity cards, which were valid for only the length of the

28 A. Grassani, Emigrazione, self-employment, imprenditorialità. Itinerari collettivi degli emigranti italiani nell’edilizia francese 1919-1939 , in «Imprese e storia», X, 1999, n.20, pp. 230-231. 29 Grossutti, Le scelte migratorie above , pp.118-119. contract, were not renewed. Workers who were left jobless were sent back to their homeland. These protectionist measures also continued during the second half of the Thirties, when the government of the People’s Front placed taxes on those employers who recruited immigrants and expelled those workers who broke their contracts. In this context, the discretionary power of Italian and French entrepreneurs – exercised by way of renewing documents and contracts – became very widespread, so much so that workers were exploited without scruple and often set one against another. 30 Giovanni Battista Candotti, a young worker from Forni di Sotto working with the Bourisson business in 1935, remembered the difficulties of the building sector as follows:

Each emigrant had to think especially about his own situation, finding a job and keeping it, sometimes without understanding the language, taking great pains to satisfy the employer, the boss who only thought about the performance of his employee. The emigrant would have to regularize his position with the local administration, which was distrustful towards the foreigner, filling out all the prescribed forms, presenting documents and photos and declarations and putting the necessary signatures. A whole pile of quibbles […] caused even by his own mates, rather hostile towards any possible competition, because there was hardly any work, often showing an aggressiveness that you had to pretend not to notice, reacting with a correct and exemplary attitude. 31

Immigrant workers were objects of hostility and blackmail caused by the absence of work, and suffered a drastic worsening of their working conditions: many were forced to abandon the sites and make place for French manpower, living by their wits or returning to their home country. It was exactly the exasperation caused by the hard

30 P. Milza – R. Schor - É Vial (eds.), Italiani di Francia. L’emigrazione fra le due guerre , Firenze, Giunti, 1989, pp. 35-39. 31 Candotti, C’era una volta in Carnia above, p. 64. working conditions that led workers to try to be entrepreneurs or, more often, to become “tacherons”, hence attracting the xenophobic hostility of French manpower. Paradoxically, setting up new businesses acted as a sort of “defence strategy” put into action to escape from the precariousness and expulsion measures, but at the same time it represented a virtuous process that often guaranteed a positive mobility within professions and society. 32

7. A unique case. Agricultural colonization in the South-West of France 1924-1927 During the Twenties, emigration towards France followed original patterns. In fact, farmers from the right bank of the Tagliamento, from Central Friuli and from the former Austrian territories left for the South-West of France, giving life to an unprecedented agricultural colonization within Europe. This exodus of farmers was caused by a complex web of political, economic and social factors: in addition to the demographic increase that had rendered land insufficient for the survival of the farmers’ families, there were the repercussions of the land struggles, the establishment of the Fascist dictatorship and, in the areas of Friuli which used to be part of the Austrian empire, a strong discontent with the new political situation following the world conflict. To labourers, wage-earners, farmers and small owners of land, the South-West of France and Argentina appeared as possible destinations where they could find a “better life”, escaping from the fascist action squads and from an agricultural system of feudal character. 33 Since the years immediately following the war, French agents had started to travel around the overpopulated agricultural areas of Veneto and Friuli, advertising the possibility of buying land and farms at reasonable prices in the South-West of France, were vast pieces of land had been left in a state of abandonment because of the urbanization process and the demographic fall caused by the Great War. The internal difficulties and the new opportunities on the other side of the Alps caused a real mass exodus; the labourers were the first to leave, after them in 1924 farmers followed from Ruda, Saciletto and

32 Grassani, Emigrazione, self-employment, imprenditorialità. above, pp. 221-222. 33 F. Cecotti – D. Mattiussi (eds.), Un’altra terra un’altra vita. L’emigrazione isontina in Sud America tra storia e memoria 1878-1970 , Gorizia, Centro L. Gasparini, 2003. Perteole, settling in Preignan, Auch and Montestruc (Gers). The farmers of Medea headed instead towards Castelculier, from Central Friuli and the right bank of the Tagliamento labourers and tenant farmers travelled to other areas of Aquitaine. 34 In spite of the attempts of the fascist government to oppose this type of permanent migration, which implied a considerable move of capital abroad, between 1926 and 1927 about 19,000 Friulians left for the South of France, some of whom returned in successive stages. The impact with the new situation in France turned out to be decidedly difficult, because it was necessary to work the abandoned fields from scratch, levelling the land, building dikes and draining the water, rebuilding the decrepit houses. Giuliano Leonarduzzi, a farmer from Ruda, described the first period in Preignan as follows:

Roads and bridges needed to be built, water and electricity were missing, there were no shops… the land, in addition, was not good, here we would describe it as cold, hard […]. To earn some money, while waiting for the first harvest, the women went to work in the big factories nearby. Some farmers, regretting the choice made, went searching for jobs in the cities. 35

The Second World War signalled a turning point, because after so many difficulties, during a time of food rationing, the farmers were able to profit from the black market and further improve their plots of land. In any case, in the long term the effects of immigration were positive for France, since the areas affected by the new establishments were repopulated, a large part of the abandoned lands were won back and agricultural produce significantly increased.

1927 – From seasonal emigration to integration

34 Tomat, L’emigrazione da Fagagna above, p. 74. On departures from and Pinzano, see Libro storico Dignano, vol. 1, 1875-1941; 12 April 1926, p. 98. 35 Personal testimony quoted by A. Miceu (ed.), Tieris cence oms par oms cence tieris. De basse furlane al Sud-Ovest de France. Storis di emigrazion (1923-1957) , Udine, Municipality of Ruda 2005, pp.280-281. The case of emigration to France demonstrates how migration flows between the two World Wars were influenced by internal forces – the family links – but also external – the world economic crisis, the policies of restrictions, the fight carried out by fascists against “subversives”. While during the Twenties emigration had maintained the typical patterns of the years preceding the war, starting from 1927 the number of workers returning was reduces due to the limitations placed on immigration by the Italian and French governments, and because of the fear of losing their jobs. Therefore, the depopulation of the mountains of Friuli, which supplied a considerable amount of emigrants, appeared to increase. The possibility of acquiring citizenship, the aversion for the regime and the high quality of life in France favoured the settling of workers on the other side of the Alps but also the spreading of new social and sexual customs in Friuli.

8. France, a new country of adoption Gradually further into the years between the wars, this transalpine republic revealed many different aspects to Friulians: firstly it represented an important work opportunity to get out of a precarious situation, then it was a land of asylum and freedom, and finally, during the Thirties, it became the country in which, albeit not without difficulty, one could start a new life. In 1927 Mussolini, with his notorious “Speech on Ascension Day”, in which he endorsed the anti-immigration measures enacted by the French government to deal with an economic crisis, began to discourage permanent emigration and to limit temporary expatriations solely to workers who were in possession of a regular employment contract. The world crisis of 1929 further contributed to abruptly slowing down flows directed to France, although the serious rural crisis and the high unemployment rates (40,000-50,000) determined a considerable revival of illegal emigration. After allowing a partial opening, the regime restricted once again the issuing of passports with the aim of pushing the unemployed towards the lands in need of reclamation and especially the colonies. 36 The bureaucratic obstacles, the increased difficulties in renewing contracts and the fear of losing their jobs compelled emigrants to reduce the seasonal movement that had characterized the 1920s. Therefore migration from temporary became permanent, a phase that was often decreed by the reunion with one’s family, by marrying in France and by starting the process for naturalization. Paradoxically, even among the less politicised members of Friulian emigrants the integration processes were accelerated by the continuous bureaucratic obstacles and by the open hostility showed by the Italian consular authorities. Since the years immediately following the war, French society turned out to be much more open and welcoming than that of Germany and Austria where the possibilities of integration were rather limited. Soon enough France became not only the land “for work” but also the land “of the heart”, of political freedom and of possibilities for social, political and economic emancipation. The reception with which exiles were greeted, the possibility of finding a profitable job, the language affinities and the possibility of acquiring citizenship were all factors that facilitated the integration process. Not only this, the capital and the big cities offered standards of living which were of a much higher quality, cultural and social models that were more advanced and considerably different from the ones in Friuli. France was thus viewed as a model of “modernity” and “progress”, revealing aspects of unprecedented openness. 37 Emigrants were often astonished by the “democratic nature” and by the absence of class distinction, as recalled by Teresa Boschin, who had left from Saciletto in 1937 to join her brother:

During my first period in Paris, as well as having to continuously argue and discuss political issues, I had considerable difficulties in

36 A. Nobile, Politica migratoria e vicende dell’emigrazione durante il fascismo , in «Il Ponte», XXX, 1974, nn.11-12, pp.1328-1333; J.Grossutti, Gjermaneoz pal mont. I tolmezzini all’estero. Quantificazione ufficiale e comunità reale , in G. Ferigo-L. Zanier (eds.) Tumieç , Udine, Philology Association of Friuli (Società Filologica friulana), 1998, pp. 111- 112; S. Biasoni, Il regime fascista in Friuli durante gli anni Trenta: disoccupazione, nuovi flussi migratori e assistenza , in «Storia contemporanea in Friuli», XXX (2000), n. 31, pp. 80-85; G. Bertuzzi, La società friulana alla vigilia della seconda guerra mondiale. Note su alcuni problemi economici e sociali , in A. Ventura (ed.), Sulla crisi del regime fascista 1938-1943. La società italiana dal “consenso” alla Resistenza , Venezia, Marsilio, 1996 ; P. Purini, L’emigrazione non italiana dalla Venezia Giulia tra le due guerre , in F. Cecotti-D. Matiussi (eds.), Una nuova terra above, p. 87; 99. 37 Micelli, Geografie dell’emigrazione above, p.39; 49. adapting to the habits of the French. But I admired their sense of equality: everyone was simply “Monsieur” and “Madame”, titles did not exist, and each person was respected for his work. 38

A society that was more liberal and less formal, apartments with electricity, running water and a bathroom, a better diet, greater comforts and better services: these are the images recurring in testimonies and which represented a real novelty, and the tangible sign that there was the possibility for a “better life”. Sunday, when people were free from work, was a time to “explore” the new French situation, walk around town, watch the football match, go dancing, meet with one’s fellow countrymen in bars and pubs, which were real meeting points for the communities of immigrants. The request for naturalization, the abandonment of the Italian language – often already starting with the second generation – highlighted the emigrants’ desire to become part of the country where they had decided to live. Nevertheless, French society always maintained an attitude of strong hostility, to the point that many emigrants remember with suffering how they were treated “as foreigners” and considered with disdain. The position Friulians managed to make for themselves in French society was therefore the outcome of a difficult and gradual process, where work in particular was seen as a moment of redemption and social recognition.

9. Friuli in France. France in Friuli Within a few years, spreading through the French migratory experience, the ripple effect of these cultural and social changes penetrated deeply even into the communities of origin, signalling a further stage in the process of modernization of Friulian society. Concerning this, the parish registers and the reports of pastoral visits written on the verge of the great crisis represent an important source of information to verify the impact of the new migration flows on population. The way of life and work emigrants were experiencing in France was viewed with preoccupation especially by the priests of the mountain areas, who sensed a strengthening of the process of

38 Personal testimony quoted in Miceu (ed.), Tieris cence oms above, p. 342. secularization and a renewed vigour of the “immorality” and “subversiveness” linked to antifascist militancy in France, considered as a dangerous hotbed of secularism and “social communism”. Moreover, it is necessary to note that these new trends, with the help of the “red years”, also spread in the areas that had been less affected by the processes of social modernization in the period preceding the war, in particular in the hills and Central Friuli where religious authority was more strongly established. 39 In the first years of the Thirties it was therefore already possible to take stock of their experience in France: priests lamented the revival of “indifference”, in other words the estrangement from religious practices and the “corruption” of morals. They vented their feelings by condemning birth control and by sadly observing the “introduction” of new forms of socializing, which found their best expression in amusements, dancing and sport, all considered as signalling the search for a society that was freer and less subjected to controls. Between these stereotyped accusations and more careful analysis, emigration to France was pinpointed as the “primary cause” of the extraordinary spreading of “Malthusianism”, as confirmed by the decisive decline in births, in spite of the policies to encourage births supported by the fascist regime and of the schools of thought in catholic culture which identified a prolific marriage as one of the foundations of Christian identity. 40 The migration flows headed abroad and within the country, the economic crisis and the spreading of new French sexual morals, fuelled the depopulation process of the mountain areas and seemed to foreshadow a new family and demographic structure. 41 France thus became a sort of negative paradigm for judging the state of religious devoutness and the morality of emigrants. In the mountain areas the latter undermined the authority of priests and denigrated the country, ruthlessly comparing it to the situation in France, seen as more modern and advanced. In this framework

39 Here I will limit myself to pointing out the cases of the areas of Buja and San Daniele (Villalta, Comerzo, Muris, Susans, Farla, Vendoglio, Forgaria, Carpacco, Madonna di Buja, Artegna), (Lonca, Pozzo, Zompicchia, Rivarotta, Qualso) and of the Friulian plain at the south-west of Udine (Vergnacco, Rivignano, , , Bressa, Colloredo di Prato, Nespoledo, , , Ternzano, Sammardenchia, Flambro, Morsano, ). Acau, Pastoral visits 1929-1933. 40 Notes relating to «Malthusianism» focus for the most part on the mountain areas, but also concern the hill areas and the plain, thus testifying the widespread change. Segnacco underwent a «limitation of births, known especially in France »; in the sin against the «sanctity of matrimony» reaches «its peak after going to France». In Verzegnis: «France has taught birth control». Acau, Pastoral Visits 1929-1933. 41 M. Gortani – G. Pittoni, Lo spopolamento montano nella montagna friulana , Rome, Inea-Cnr, 1938. birth control became part of a greater public debate: the parish priest of San Gervasio wrote that “we have reached a point of such impertinence that parents who have many children are objects of derision”. 42 On the other hand, it was precisely the fact that they went to France that favoured the proliferation of new sexual morals, and it is not a coincidence that priests emphasized how among emigrants one would encounter a “lack of marital faithfulness”, a “relaxation of ethics” and a “lack of inhibition”, expressions describing a tendency to freer sexual relations. Just as frequent (but all to be verified) were the mentions of abandonment of wives and daughters, of emigrants who had not been back “for many years” and who sent “no news”. From this point of view, emigration across the Alps, similar to that across the ocean, represented for many the opportunity to sever once and for all their connections with society at home: the dissatisfaction with society and life in general, together with the economic precariousness and fascist repression, manifested themselves in the building of a new life dictated by different moral principles and codes. 43 As had previously happened at the turn of the century, the outcomes of emigration were felt in particular by the younger and more receptive members, who came back to Friuli “irreligious, depraved, corrupt, immoral or cold and indifferent”. 44 The fear of laicism, viewed as a direct consequence of the spreading of communist ideology among workers in France, demonstrated also the substantial concurrence of principles held by the Catholic Church and the Fascist regime: the birth rate, religion, ruralism, sobriety and anti-Bolshevism. After a visit to France in July 1931, the parish priest of Rivalpo noted with alarm:

The French population is really corrupt and a cold and frightening laicism dominates everywhere […]. The bane of revived Malthusianism is generally practiced to excess: children are in fact a true rarity. Urbanism is strongly marked: farmers have abandoned the fields in mass […] and have settled in the cities where they can earn

42 Acau, Pastoral Visits, vol. 848, San Gervasio 1932. 43 For an example, Ifsml, b. 5, Parish register of Venzone, sac. F. Lucardi, 1938, pp. 161-163. 44 M. Ermacora, Parroci ed emigarnti nelle visite pastoriali della Diocesi di Udine (1898-1914), in «Metodi e Ricerche», n. s., XVIII, 1999, n. 1, p. 58. easily and they find ways of enjoyment and vices at every corner. No holy days are kept […], this great evil can be seen especially within the lower levels of society and within the working classes with which our emigrants work and live, remaining more or less infected […]. What is needed it to pay them a visit every year, then this corruption and French laicism would not cause such damage to these poor men forced to go and live in the middle of so much evil to keep their families. 45

The feeling of powerlessness priests experienced was heightened also by the fact that residence abroad became longer and family reunifications soon involved women too. However, pastoral action, free from the competition of socialism but subjected to the controls of the regime, renewed itself, manifesting itself both abroad and within the country by sending emigrants parish bulletins and catholic publications, by corresponding, organizing religious celebrations and holy days, or by organising special missions and pilgrimages to France.

10. The difficult years. Between expulsion, integration and political struggles In the 1930s, France showed its hardest side, not only with the enactment of anti- immigration measures but also with the intensifying of the violent fights between fascists and anti-fascists. In this period the aversion against the regime and the processes of integration seemed to strengthen; historiography has highlighted how anti-fascism was an important factor for the integration of immigrant manpower in French society, a process that however was not straightforward because of the different elements present within the anti-fascists and their different way of understanding exile and political activity. Indeed, it was not without clashes that the French workers’ movement spurred the immigrant militants to participate in the trade-union struggles taking place in the host country, a practice favoured by the directives issued by the International Communist which since 1934 had supported the

45 Parish register of Rivalpo, sub 13 July 1931. creation of popular fronts in the fight against fascism. In this way the French Communist Party, the Confédération Générale du Travail and the politicized members of the emigrants’ community played a fundamental role in the trade union and political development of the old and new generations of workers, causing phenomena of widespread unionization such as that in Lorraine. The support given to the Popular Front, and the strikes that lead to the achievement of paid holidays, of a 40 hour working week, of collective labour agreements, of Saturday as a day off, represented important moments in the process of becoming aware of new possibilities in the fields of politics and economy, and translated themselves into specific choices. 46 In spite of the considerable difficulties and strict controls, their experience in France was therefore a unique moment of freedom, solidarity and participation, which led to the substantial participation of people from Friuli and Venezia Giulia in the International Brigades during the Spanish civil war between 1936 and 1939. To cite just a few examples, many communists from Tavagnacco in Montrouge and those from Castelnuovo del Friuli in Toulon were among the volunteers who went to fight against fascism in Spain. 47 Political militancy however opened up to new forms of meeting too, as demonstrated by the experience of the paper “ l’Alba Friulana ” and the many activities of recreation and assistance – attentive to the regional identity of the immigrants’ community – coordinated by the socialist leader Ernesto Piemonte. The existence of anti-fascist communities was undermined by spies and informants, and by the strict controls carried out by the French authorities who did not hesitate to expel foreign workers who were guilty of “subversive” activities. The Fascists’ control on communist, socialist and anarchic militants from Carnia and Pordenone was constant and merciless, extending even to relatives, who were often blackmailed and beaten. 48 “Subversives” and “traitors” had to face the strengthening of the regime

46 A. Bechelloni, Tra esilio politico ed emigrazione economica: gli Italiani in Francia da una guerra all’altra sullo sfondo di un mezzo secolo di presenza italiana nel movimento operaio francese , in J.Grossutti-F.Micelli (ed.), L’altra Tavagnacco. L’emigrazione friulana in Francia tra le due guerre , Pasian di Prato, Municipality of Tavagnacco, 2003, pp. 11-12. 47 M. Puppini, In Spagna, per la libertà , Udine, Ifsml, 1986; see also the essays by M. Puppini, Fuoriusciti in Francia tra le due guerre , and K. Salvador, Dati sull’emigrazione a Castelnuovo del Friuli dal 1918-1950 , in La dispora friulana. Materiali per una ricerca , Sequals, Tielle, 2001, pp. 9-18 e p. 85. 48 C. Venza, La val Pesarina alla fine degli anni Trenta: fascismo e “consenso” , in «Almanacco culturale della Carnia», VI, 1991, p. 122; O. Fabian, Affinchè resti memoria. Autobiografia di un proletario carnico 1899-1974 , and the marked “fascistization” of emigrants achieved by the “Italian Fascist Party abroad”, the “Italian clubs” and the use of consulates as an instrument of propaganda and control. 49 The activities organized by the regime – courses of Italian, stays in the homeland, free travel for women in childbirth, recreational and sport activities – were aimed at fostering national identity, averting emigrants from the desire for naturalization and favouring repatriation. 50 In observance of these policy directions, in January 1939 the so called “ Ciano ” law was passed, allowing emigrants who had long been established abroad the possibility to come back to Italy; all things considered, repatriations to Friuli were limited, providing further proof of the level of integration in France but also of the aversion towards the regime. In the second half of the Thirties migration flows towards France further reduced. The regime tried to direct the unemployed workforce firstly towards its colonies and then towards Hitler’s Germany, which needed manpower to speed up its rearmament. The economic growth experienced by Germany between 1939 and 1940 spurred a great number of Friulian workers to move from France to Nazi Germany and Austria. 51 The outbreak of the Second World War caused massive returns from France 52 and the situation of immigrants who remained abroad became particularly difficult after the fascist attack in 1940, which caused the preventive internment of thousands of Italians, considered as “foreign enemies”. The war showed how integration was actually fragile and uncertain. Nevertheless, the participation of immigrants in the French resistance was considerable, carried out in the name of workers’ internationalism and the fight against Nazi-fascism. Political exiles who had participated in the war in Spain became prominent personalities of the French

Basaldella, Kappavu 1999, pp.47-55. On the leaders of the workers’ movement in Pordenone during the years between the wars an important research is currently under way by G. L. Bettoli that the author has kindly allowed me to consult. 49 E. Vial, I Fasci in Francia , in E. Franzina-M.Sanfilippo (a cura di), Il fascismo e gli emigrati , Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2003, p. 28; 33-34. For some examples see the Archive of the Municipality of Gemona, b. 596, file n. Assistenza alle madri italiane rimpatriate 1937-1939. 50 For some examples see Archive of the Municipality of b. 596, file n. Assitenza alle madri italiane rimpatriate 1937- 1939. 51 C. Bermani, Al Lavoro nella Germania di Hitler. Racconti e memorie dell’emigrazione italiana, 1937-1945 , Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 1998, pp. 23-35. M. Fincardi (ed.), Emigranti a passo romano. Operai dell’Alto Veneto e Friuli nella Germania hitleriana , Verona, Cierre, 2002. 52 See Archive of the Municipality of Artegna, b. 1350, file n. ECA rimpatriati 1939-1945. resistance and of the partisan movement in Italy. A new generation of militants, who had grown up in France, brought an end to the fight against fascism that had begun twenty years before.

1945-1968. The revival of emigration Emigration towards France started again with a certain intensity during the difficult years of the post-war reconstruction. The first phase of emigration, formed mainly by manpower coming from the mountain areas, often took on a permanent character. At the end of the 1950s France as a destination was surpassed by seasonal emigration to Switzerland and Germany, which was better paid. The different needs of the French job market, characterized by an intense industrial development, contributed to reduce the flows of builders, miners and furnace workers, who were gradually replaced by factory workers, skilled carpenters and artisans. Emigration took on a long term structure, marked by regular returns.

11. France after the Second World War The intense migratory phase that affected France in the years following the Second World War still awaits a thorough historiographic research. At the end of the War Friuli was on its knees: lack of food, unemployment, a slow reconstruction and high social tensions significantly influenced the first years of the new republic. For many the most immediate solution was to look for new work opportunities abroad, because the agricultural sector offered limited and precarious possibilities of employment and the standard of living was particularly low. The migration movement therefore resumed with renewed vigour between 1946 and the end of the 1950s, fuelled by a workforce from the mountain areas of Carnia and Pordenone, the strip of land between the mountains and the River Tagliamento, and the hills: villages were practically emptied of their most active inhabitants. In the first years following the war illegal emigration was a considerable frequent phenomenon. Until 1952 France prevailed among the European destinations, followed by Belgium and Luxembourg; in fact most of the workers who emigrated took advantage of the connections offered by fellow countrymen who had established themselves in France before the war. Somehow, workers retraced the paths already covered in the preceding years, as for example in the case of the bricklayers from and Interneppo who between 1947 and 1967 continued to seek employment in the building sites of the capital and its outskirts. Similar phenomena could be observed in the areas of Carnia and the hills of Friuli, where the new departures repeated the destinations and professions of the years between the two World Wars: furnace workers from , Buja, Lauzzana, , Colloredo, Fagagna and Pozzuolo, just to mention a few, headed towards the areas surrounding Paris and the areas of the North. 53 As reported in many writings, Italians were “unpopular” because of the aggression of 1940: in addition to the insults from French co-workers – “fascists, corrupted, traitors” - they were subjected to discrimination as regards salary and treatment. 54 During this phase, Friulians could do nothing more but offer their services in the hardest jobs, which did not require qualifications but were unprotected, such as building, work in the mines and furnaces, but also the picking of beets and mussels in Normandy, and farm labour. Illegal expatriations without any contract coincided with entry in the irregular job market, greatly exploited by the French employers during the years of post-war reconstruction. The work conditions of builders and furnace men were particularly difficult: passing through clearing centres, living in widespread precariousness, shoved all together in the huts close to the workplace; savings were often possible only through additional odd jobs carried out during the weekend or at the time of harvests. In the furnaces the amount of piecework, difficult and tiring, seemed the same, as reported by Gildo, a Friulian worker who had emigrated illegally to Precy-sur-Oise in 1946:

53 G. Di Caporiacco, Storia e statistica dell’emigrazione dal Friuli e dalla Carnia. Volume secondo. Da dopo la grande guerra al 1966 , Udine, Edizioni del Friuli Nuovo, 1969, p. 88. E. Saraceno, Emigrazione e rientri, Il Friuli-Venezia Giulia nel secondo dopoguerra , Udine, Il Campo, 1981, p. 11; 37-39. J. Grossutti (ed.), Chei di Puçùi pal mont. I pozzuolesi nel mondo , Tavagnacco, Arti Grafiche friulane, Municipality of , 2004, p. 25. 54 F. Fabbroni, Friuli 1945-1948. Linee di interpretazione , in «Storia contemporanea in Friuli», VI, 1976, n.7, pp. 40- 41. See also the testimonies at the following internet address: http:www.sangiorgioinsieme.it/valis3.html#anchor20340.

We get up at four in the morning and work hard until midday, then we stop for one hour to have something to eat and then get back to work until dark, it can be even fourteen hours a day […]. Now the boss has increased our pay, he gives us 130 francs for a thousand bricks, but it still isn’t much if you think how much hard work it is to carry all those bricks with the wheelbarrow. Still it’s better than before and all of us try to save everything we can so that we can go back home as soon as possible. We do everything ourselves, like preparing our food, cleaning our things and mending our clothes, cutting our hair and we never go to the cinema, I went only once and after I felt so stupid for having thrown all that money away. 55

There were many workers who, once they had arrived in France, decided to stay, calling their family or starting a new one with French women or, more often, with the daughters of Italian or Friulian emigrants. In this period going abroad, especially in the case of France, represented a choice of life and work of a permanent character. 56 As happened for the mountain areas (Tolmezzo, , Resia), also for the valleys of the Natisone and (, ) and of the right bank of the Tagliamento, migration towards France, together with the flows towards internal territories, significantly contributed to heighten the depopulation of these areas, since the good opportunities of integration on the other side of the Alps were counterbalanced by the continuing absence of economic development in the homeland. 57 In the two periods of peak emigration, between 1946 and 1949 and later between 1956 and 1962, Mulhouse, Metz, Nancy, the areas of Tarn and Garonne, High Savoia, Ardennes, Jura, Mosella, Bourgogne, Île de France and Paris became

55 Letter quoted in A. Bongiorno-A. Barbina, Il pane degli altri. Lettere di emigranti , Udine, Edizioni la situazione, 1970, p. 123. 56 A. Faelli A., Chel porco di destin... Da Arba a La-Frette-sur Seine , Pasian di Prato, Museo provinciale della vita contadina “Diogene Penzi”, Municipality of , 2001; L. Zilli (ed.), “…A lavorâ in Francia”. I lestanesi e l’emigrazione friulana , Lestans, Somsi, 2005. 57 For a general overview, see Montagna problema nazionale. Quarant’anni di storia: dalla liberazione ad oggi , Udine, Ifsml, 1987, in part. 240-248. J. Grossutti, L’emigrazione in Canale di Gorto nel secondo dopoguerra , in M. Michelutti (ed.), In guart. Anime e contrade della Pieve di Gorto , udine, SFF, Arti Grafiche, 1994, pp. 252-254. real centres with many attractions for Friulian manpower. 58 The trades of the old generation of emigrants - farm labourer, bricklayer, furnace man, innkeeper, merchant, woodman – coexisted with those that characterised a European country undergoing a rapid economic growth and which thus required electricians, turners, factory workers, skilled artisans and carpenters. The experience gained during the years between the two World Wars was precious and started important professional experiences, as can be seen in the case of Angelo Pittau from , who in the years following the Second World War became one of the most important contractors in the building sector. 59 The settlement in French society allowed a slow social mobility; the building trade remained the main job sector for immigrants, however the better knowledge they had of the society in which they arrived allowed them to find employment even in the small businesses or in the more humble positions of the tertiary sector. Moreover the development of an economy based on big factories allowed many workers – men and women – to leave the “dirty” jobs, to gather experience within the workers’ and trade union movement, to integrate and actively participate in the social life of the host country. Marriage with French women was often a decisive factor to set up small entrepreneurial activities in the fields of building, commercial trade and crafts. A significant transformation also affected women who emigrated: between the 1950s and 60s a growing number of women abandoned domestic life and their traditional roles (dressmaker, ironing woman, cook or servant) and went to work in the factories, albeit being given generic tasks and a subordinate, often underpaid, position. Nevertheless, for many women the possibility of leaving housework meant that they could come into contact with French society in a different way, emancipate

58 G. Meneghel-F. Battigelli, Contributi geografici allo studio dei fenomeni migratori in Italia. Analisi di due comuni campione delle Prealpi Giulie: Lusevera e Savogna , Pisa, Pacini Editore, 1977, p.52; 146-147; J. Grossutti, Magnanès, buereòz e biliròz all’estero. L’emigrazione nel territorio comunale di magnano di Riviera , in O. Burelli (ed.), . Un comune e tre anime, Udine, Arti grafiche, 2003, p. 217; N. Boz, Parâ via. L’emigrazione da , Sequals, Municipality of Barcis, 2004, p. 51; F. Micelli-J. Grossutti (ed.), Comeglianots pal mont. I Comeglianotti nel mondo , Udine, Designgraf, Municipality of Comeglians, 2002. 59 See Grassani, Emigrazione, self-employement above, pp. 248-255. themselves from a condition of isolation and an inadequate command of the language. 60 The mutual assistance within the network of Friulian and Italian immigrants was fundamental for the gradual integration in the transalpine country, housing, mediation and recruitment in better occupational sectors. In the years following the Second World War, a new generation of Friulians – who had grown up in France between the two wars, had gone to school there and considered themselves “French” to all intents and purposes – came to the fore, in the urban areas as much as in the countryside. This process increased the trust of the country and also contributed to a positive recognition of the Friulian and Italian emigrants. And yet during the Fifties, foreigners were despised and “hated”, they were “macheronì”, as recalled by Bianca: “in France even if you were in your own house it felt like you were in someone else’s… sometimes they would say to you: caron d’Italie, tu vien manger notre pain and you had to pretend not to have heard or you changed the subject, but at what a cost…». 61 Immigrants had to “pay the burden” of their differences, indeed for a long time the treatment they were subjected to was discriminatory as regards the payment of insurance contributions, limited only to the period they worked, or the amount of family allowances, which was lower if they were sent abroad. Slowly an equalization of rights and duties was achieved in the workplace, and at the same time, between the end of the 1960s and the 1980s, a definite integration of the “historical” components of emigration came to its conclusion, putting an end to the hypocritical behaviour of French public opinion that regarded Italians as “good” emigrants and often compared them in apposition to the more recent emigrants from North Africa. 62

1968-2006 Towards the end of the Sixties the experience of emigration to France came to its conclusion. Returns exceeded departures and the migratory flows stopped in concurrence with the formation of a regional job market. Friuli and France

60 “Feminis pal mont”. Storie di donne emigrate , Ires-Alef, s.l. 1990, p. 57. 61 “Feminis pal mont” above, p. 49. 62 E. Vial, In Francia , in P.Bevilacqua-A.De Clementi-E.Franzina (eds.), Storia dell’emigrazione italiana. Arrivi , Roma, Donzelli, 2002, pp. 134-138. remained linked by the summer commuting of the “French” and by the permanent returns of the emigrants who had left the region after the Second World War. After the earthquake of 1976, a period of intense interchange, a new albeit contradictory phase started; in recent times the European dimension, the processes of globalization and the new international migration flows have stirred the rediscovery of forgotten national and regional identities and new thoughts on the history of emigration.

12. The last phase: establishment, returns and new identities In some areas of Friuli such as the mountains, France as a destination continued to exert a certain attractiveness until the beginning of the 1970s. In fact, already at the turn of the previous decade, emigration towards this country had lost its momentum, and was gradually replaced by seasonal work in Switzerland and Germany. In this last phase a twofold phenomenon could be seen: on the one hand the definite establishment of emigrants who had left Friuli in the years immediately following the Second World War, and on the other the temporary character of emigration, marked by regular returns and sudden peaks due to seasonal flows responding to the needs of the growing French economy. 63 In the course of the 1960s, with the help of national policies and of the characteristics of European economic development, emigration showed itself as a “project for a specific time and a specific purpose”, aimed at saving money and returning to Friuli. 64 It was precisely the aspiration to a new home equipped with modern comforts that acted as the main reason behind the transfer of sums of money and, as one emigrant wrote, “a life of sacrifices to save francs”. 65 The importance of home emphasized the temporary character of the migratory movements and the newfound priority of return; Gildo, the furnace worker mentioned above, wrote to his sisters:

63 Micelli, Muratori friulani in Francia above, pp. 13-14. 64 Saraceno, Emigrazione e rientri above, p. 11. 65 Letter quoted in Bongiormo-Barbina, Il pane degli altri above, p. 65. I want to see it [the house] slowly appear, you know it is hard to believe that I have nearly finished after all these years I have been dreaming of this moment, we can’t wait for it to end so that we can come back to Italy […] but we need another two years because we also want to build a bathroom and heaters, I have been so dirty and cold all my life that now I want a house like a lord, one of those where you are comfortable even in the winter, when it is raining or snowing outside. 66

During the second half of the 1960s France was internally thwarted by strong social tensions and by processes of industrial reconstruction that caused unemployment, an increase in the cost of living and a reduction of salaries. This crisis – which affected in particular the areas of the North where the mines and steelwork establishments were placed – increased during the following decade, significantly restraining the migratory movements. The job market itself, was contracting and required different professional competences, more highly skilled workers even in the traditional building sector. Between integration and temporariness emigrants seemed to suffer from a gradual isolation and marginalization, which political activities were not able to make up for. Even those living abroad heard the rumours of the struggle between the Christian Democrat Party and the Italian Communist Party that marked the years following the Second World War. In this situation the participation in the French trade union movement contributed to the development of greater attention towards the problem of emigration on behalf of regional and national politics:

The dream of every emigrant – wrote Egidio Birri, a worker who had emigrated to France – is to return to Italy and be able to live there without having to be on the breadline like we would be now if we went back. […] Here we are a group of Italians and most are

66 Letter quoted in Bongiormo-Barbina, Il pane degli altri above, p. 127. communists, and we tease each other but we remain friends, they tell me when Saragat gives me some soup and I tell them when Kruschev is feeding them American corn. And after we have joked and fooled around, we are all still emigrants. 67

Emigration, on the other hand – as shown by the clear condemnation of which the poet Leonardo Zannier was spokesman – appeared to be a necessity that was even harder to accept, in a time when even the region of Friuli was heading towards industrial development. Indeed starting from the end of the 1960s the movement caused by the return of workers became intense and the urge to migrate ceased, in concurrence with the creation of a real job market in the region. This based itself firstly on the great industrial centres and then on the small and medium decentralized businesses, which developed thanks to the professional and entrepreneurial competences gained abroad. 68 The earthquake of 1976 did not slow down returns and, on the contrary, it favoured the recruitment of builders. Within Friulian society after the earthquake this dramatic moment gave rise to the fear of a new forced migration. 69 The reconstruction following the event was followed with great attention by emigrants, who cared about the restoration of their homes in the motherland that was being carried out with the help of public assistance. At the end of the Seventies, about 55,000 Friulian emigrants resided in France (representing 50% of emigrants in Europe, and 20% of all emigrants), living in difficult conditions because of the processes of industrial development so that, immediately after the earthquake, many workers reached the decision to return definitely. 70 The regional conferences on emigration held in this period outlined a conclusive analysis of the Friulian migration cycle, involving France and other countries. After all, the very historical experience of Italian migration was drawing to a close and the peninsula itself was soon to become the destination of the first migratory flows from

67 Letter quoted in Bongiorno-Barbina, Il pane degli altri above, p. 89. 68 Saraceno, Emigrazione e rientri above, pp. 89-90. 69 See M. Ermacora, Documents pa storie dai furlans tal taramot dal 1976. Guide al archivi inte Biblioteche comunâl “Don Valentino baldissera” di Glemone , Gemona, Municipality of Gemona, 2000. 70 Regione Autonoma Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Atti della seconda conferenza regionale dell’emigrazione , Udine 28-29-30 June 1979, Regione autonoma Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Trieste, Litografia Ricci, s.d., pp. 171-172. North Africa. A bifurcation of the routes across the Alps was therefore taking place: in apposition to the periodic summer return of “the French”, there were those who, after many decades abroad, chose to spend the years of their retirement back home; this was a phenomenon that was a cause of social isolation, especially for those who returned from the big cities and found an environment with little regard for the needs of women and the elderly, a lack of services, and a bureaucratic and familistic environment. According to information extracted from the register of Italians residing abroad (Aire) in June 2005, there are about 22,000 Friulians in France, representing approximately one third of the whole continental emigration. 71 The new European dimension, mobility and the new means of communication offer to the “French” and Friulians of various generations the possibility to resume connections between the communities of origin and those of arrival, and to reflect on their history. The rediscovery of the problematic aspects surrounding the migratory phenomenon represents a possible ground on which to rebuild new relations and manage to understand the aspirations, fears and projects of today’s migrants who, leaving from the poorest and most degraded areas of the world, arrive in Europe in search for work and a new life.

71 I refer to the site www.ammer-fvg.org/ I Friulians in France. Bibliography.

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