He proceeds: From the Camorra. that vast spider web of thieves and prostitutes by whom life and politics in Naples are controlled. have come thousands who find the hardworking Italian immigrants a richer field of exploitation than any field open at home. Still more harassing is the Mafia. by means of which Sicilians contrive to ignore police and courts and to secure justice in their own way. A legacy of Spanish domination and Spanish arrogance is the sense of olnerta. or manliness. which holds it dastardly to betray to justice even ones deadliest foe. To avenge ones wrongs oneself and never to appeal to law is a part of Sicilian honor. Further. relative to the Italians. he says: Among the foreign born the Italians rank lowest In adhesion to tradeunions. lowest in ability to speak English. lowest In proportion snaturalized after 10 years residence. lowest in proportion of children in school. antd highest in proportion of children at work. Taking into account the innumerable " birds of passage" without family or future In this country. it would be safe to say that half. perhaps twothirds. of our Italian immigrants are under America. not of it. Far from being borne along with our onward life. they drift round and round In a " Little Italy " eddy or lie motionless in some industrial pocket or crevice at the bottom of the national. current. I think.
Identified stereotypes
Italians are associated with crime (Camorra, Mafia), low skills, and failure to assimilate.