This article sheds light on Italian emigration flows with a focus on their geographical origins in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, that is, during the so‐called Great Migration. Annual province‐level data on Italian emigration are analysed in order to reconstruct the regional origins of emigrants, the factors motivating their decisions, their gender, and their literacy levels. The regions generating the largest population outflows were located in the North of the country. Despite the literature's focus on the Italian south diaspora to the US, the main destinations of Italian emigration in this period were other European countries. Explanations focusing on economic factors as emigration drivers prove weak. The provinces generating the greatest outflows do not appear to share any characteristics nor obey any underlying pattern: some tentative explanations concerning provinces of origin will be offered. Data relating to the emigration of women and children point to the central role of nuclear families, displaying a higher rate of growth compared to overall emigration, with peaks during the migration booms to Latin America (1890s) and the United States (1905–1907). No obvious connection emerges between emigrant outflow size and literacy levels: people migrated from the literate North as well as from the more impoverished regions featuring much lower literacy levels.

中文翻译：

---

意大利大迁徙（1876-1913 年）的地理和社会概况


本文阐明了意大利移民潮，重点介绍了它们在 19 世纪末和 20 世纪初的地理起源，即所谓的大迁徙期间。分析了意大利移民的年度省级数据，以重建移民的地区来源、促使他们做出决定的因素、他们的性别和他们的识字水平。造成人口外流最多的地区位于该国北部。尽管文献的重点是意大利南部侨民到美国，但这一时期意大利移民的主要目的地是其他欧洲国家。事实证明，将经济因素作为移民驱动因素的解释很薄弱。产生最大流出量的省份似乎没有任何特征，也不遵循任何基本模式：将提供一些关于原籍省份的初步解释。与妇女和儿童移民有关的数据表明，核心家庭发挥着核心作用，与整体移民相比，其增长率更高，在向拉丁美洲（1890 年代）和美国（1905-1907 年）的移民热潮中达到顶峰。移民流出规模和识字水平之间没有明显的联系：人们从识字率高的北方以及识字水平低得多的更贫困地区迁移过来。