A network of Italian Emigration Museums to enhance the heritage of knowledge they preserve. This is the great initiative presented on Thursday, December 5, 2024 at the international congress ‘Italian Diasporas – Representation and Identity Issues’ in Genoa, as part of the Italea Project, the program to promote roots tourism launched by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“The heritage preserved by our Emigration Museums must be shared and made available to travelers of the roots, who come to visit the places from which their ancestors departed,” said Giovanni Maria De Vita, head of the Italea project for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “ but also to the Italian public opinion so that it knows and appreciates the history of emigration and realizes the potential that this exceptional resource offers by the 80 million Italians abroad, who have reached all the top of the societies in which they live”.

“We are in Genoa ,” added Luigi Maria Vignali, Director General for Italians Abroad at the Foreign Ministry – to strengthen the sense and importance of the museums of Emigration in Italy. They are a heritage that must be enhanced to learn more about the history of our emigration, which is still too little known”.

The numbers of the project

In Genoa , the numbers of the Italea project were presented, which aims precisely to attract Italians abroad and Italian-descendants intending to discover the places and traditions of their origins. Italea has built a widespread and dynamic network on the territory with 20 regional groups and 16 coordinators. The italea.com website has already been visited by over one million and 100 thousand people; there are almost five thousand requests for travel or genealogical research, 368 thousand views of the Italea Card website (the card that offers advantages, discounts and concessions for those who come to Italy to discover their origins) and 11,252 members of the program.

And again: 833 municipalities involved and 742 events already organized. Over 60 awareness-raising events in Italy organized by the regional Italee to encourage opportunities for collaboration and discussion; 19 missions abroad in 13 countries with an estimated participation of over 1.5 million people.

What is Italea

Coinciding with the year of Italian roots in the world, Italea was launched, the program to promote roots tourism launched by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation as part of the Pnrr project and funded by NextGenerationEU, which invites Italian-descendants around the world to come and visit their family’s country of origin.

Roots Tourism was born with the intention of discovering culture, rituals and traditions and enhancing places that are not destinations for mass tourism. The project involves over 800 small Italian municipalities, winners of the call for cultural activities in favor of Italian-descendants. Italea refers to our country and to ‘cutting’, a practice by which a plant is allowed to propagate. By cutting a part of it and replanting it, it can be given new life, making new roots grow: just as happens with migrations. This program represents an invitation to rediscover the ‘mother plant’.

The debate in Genoa

In Genoa on 5, 6 and 7 December at the Mei National Museum of Italian Emigration and the Galata Museo del Mare, the fifth edition of the international congress ‘Italian Diasporas – Representation and Issues of Identity’ will be held, an event of in-depth study and discussion on the phenomenon of Italian emigration and the realities of migration museums. Three days of debate on the theme of Italian emigration: over 80 experts from various countries to analyze the state of the art of Italian emigration and the dedicated museums.

Below is the list of museums that have joined the network so far:

• Abruzzo – Fondazione Genti d’Abruzzo Onlus, managing body of the Museo delle Genti d’Abruzzo – Pescara
• Basilicata – Lucanian Emigration Museum – Lucani nel Mondo Center “Nico Calice” – Lagopesole (PZ)
• Campania – Museum of the Surname – Padula (SA)
• Calabria – La Nave della Sila – Spezzano della Sila (CS) Museum of the Sea, Agriculture and Migration – Cariati (CS)
• Emilia-Romagna – Parma Emigration Documentation Centre Bedonia – Parma
• Liguria – International Museum of Italian Emigration – Genoa; MuSel – Archaeological and City Museum of Sestri Levante – Sestri Levante
• Marche – MEMA – Museum of Marche Emigration – Recanati
• San Marino – Museum of the Emigrant – Centre for Research on Emigration
• Molise – Municipal Museum of Migrations – Vinchiaturo (CB)
• Piedmont – Silvio Pellico ETS Study Center, Management Committee of the Regional Museum of Emigration of the Piedmontese – Frossasco (TO); Regional Museum of Vigezzo emigration in the world – Museo Spazzacamino –
• Santa Maria Maggiore
• Sardinia – MEA – Museum of Sardinian Emigration – Asuni
• Sicily – Aeolian Museum of Emigration – Salina (ME); Ibleo Museum of Emigration – Giarratana (SR); Caropepe Valguarnera Ethnological Museum – Caropepe (EN); Ecomuseum Petra d’Asgotto Nicosia (EN); Museum of Emigration of the Trapani Area of Santa Ninfa – Santa Ninfa (TP); Museo Tempo Canicattini Bagni (SR)
• Tuscany – National Diary Archive – Pieve Santo Stefano
• Veneto – MiM Interactive Museum of Migration – Belluno