Hopelessly Alien - The Italian Immigration Experience in Chicago Heights

Hopelessly Alien is an in-depth study of Italian immigration to Chicago Heights, Illinois, between 1910 and 1950. Drawing upon oral histories, interviews, historical documents, and census materials, Louis Corsino examines the critical concept of hope, which most immigration studies have cast in privatized, psychological terms as the motivation to emigrate in search of a better life. This investigation offers a more contentious, sociological perspective, depicting hope as both an ideological lure to recruit and manage the "foreign element" and as a resource immigrants employed to purchase acceptance and avoid a disparaging label as a "hopelessly alien" stranger. These dialectical processes are illustrated through the Italian immigrants' pursuit of occupational mobility and homeownership, and the appropriation of their children's hopes. Each became forms of cultural capital that demonstrated a public commitment to the American ethos of "joyful striving." Each provided measures of success, but these individual pursuits came at the expense of upsetting the necessary tension between individual and communal hopes.

About the author

Louis Corsino is Professor of Sociology at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. He is the author of The Neighborhood Outfit: Organized Crime in Chicago Heights.

Product details

• Authors: Louis Corsino, Corsino Louis
• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 02.11.2024
• EAN: 9781438497617
• ISBN: 978-1-4384-9761-7
• No. of pages: 188
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 25 mm
• Series: SUNY series in Italian/American Culture
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; USA, Ethnic Studies, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Emigration & Immigration, 20th Century, 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000, HISTORY / United States / 20th Century, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, Migration, immigration & emigration, Local History, United States of America, USA, Ethnic groups and multicultural studies, Migration, immigration and emigration, History of the Americas, Ethnic minorities & multicultural studies, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Race & Ethnic Relations, US Midwest, North Central & Mid-West States