Hopelessly Alien The Italian Immigration Experience in Chicago Heights (PDF)

An in-depth sociological investigation of "hope" as it applies to the Italian immigrant experience in the blue-collar suburb of Chicago Heights between 1910 and 1950.
"This book upends the widely held belief that immigrants' decision to leave Italy was fueled solely by a hope for upward mobility and a greater social status than could be attained by remaining in Italy. While nominally a case study of Italian immigrants in Chicago, Corsino's findings will certainly spur researchers to examine not only the experiences and motivations of Italian immigrants elsewhere in the United States, but those of other ethnic groups as well, and have the potential to lead to a wholesale reexamination of immigration motivation en masse." - John R. Mitrano, Central Connecticut State University