(ENG) The Italian-Canadian nonna: Global migrant or marginal player?

By Giuliana Colalillo.

Until the late 1970s the focus of research on migration seemed to assume that most migrants were male. It obscured the fact that women, too, were ‘on the move’ and simply relegated female migrants as accessories to men. Today the global dimensions of female migration are indisputable. Current research on the feminization of migration gives a face and voice to women, largely from developing countries, who have become key economic contributors to both the sending and receiving societies.

One such example is the Italian Canadian nonna, the grandmother who immigrated in post WW2 years as a young woman from the poor, war-torn regions of Italy, either alone or with family.

This paper will place the Italian Canadian nonna in the flow of migration patterns that have always included females and will offer new perspectives into her life.

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