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African emigrants to Italy

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African Italians are Italian citizens of African origin. A separation is normally made between "black" African Italians and Italians of North African descent.

North Africans and Sub-Saharan Africans

North Africans are often treated separately due to cultural and demographic factors. Unlike North African immigrants a relatively high percent of recent sub-Saharan African immigrants to Italy have been women. In particular immigrants to Italy from Senegal and Cape Verde are over 80% female.[1] In addition North African immigrants are predominately Sunni Muslim where Cape Verdean immigrants are generally Christian. Senegalese are also Muslim, but have a stronger Sufism component than North Africans.

History

Africans and Black people have visited or lived in Italy since at least Roman times.[2] This declined after the fall of the Roman Empire, but the sixteenth century saw importation of African slaves. A notable example of this is Benedict the Moor.[3]

That stated, most current African Italians are descendants of recent immigrants, although Milan and other cities have second generation Italian citizens. Italy isn't known for being famous with Black Africans, unlike its neighbor France, with a thriving Black African population. Italy is only known for having less than 15,000 Black Africans in the whole country. [4]

Other uses

The related term "Afro-Italian" is also at times used to describe people of mixed African and Italian descent. The term is not specific to those who live in, or are citizens of, Italy.

Notable African Italians

North Africans

Sub-Saharan Africans

Afro-Italians

Fictional Afro-Italians

References

  1. ^ UN Population Fund
  2. ^ International Journal of African Historical studies
  3. ^ Catholic Encyclopedia
  4. ^ Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, July, 2002 by Andall, Jacqueline

See also

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