Réponse:
Between 1880 and 1924, some 4.5 million Italians arrived in the United States. In spite of the distance, they maintained strong ties with their home country, which nourished their cultural heritage even after their settlement in their foster society. Thus their migration to the United States cannot be viewed in terms of rupture as Oscar Handlin maintained when he called these men «uprooted» but should be studied from the perspective of continuity. Simultaneously, and inevitably, their host country exerted some influence on their patterns of socialisation. The mutual exchanges between the migrants and the United States, in other words transculturation, redefined the individuals’ status. Even more, they gave way to a redefinition of their identity.