STATE AND MIGRATION POLICIES: THE CASES OF SPAIN AND ITALY AFTER WORLD WAR II

Abstract

After the end of World War II the Italian and Spanish emigrations abroad reactivated, adopting Argentina as a priority destiny. In a moment characterized by a growing state interventism, the Spanish and Italian governments encouraged the departures towards spaces with traditional connections, due to reasons that coincided in certain cases. In both nations the emigrations became the privileged mechanism to decompress the social pressures on the labour market and to equilibrate de balance of payments, through the reception of the remittances sent by the emigrants. In addition, in both Spain and Italy the Roman Catholic Church played a similar role, encouraging the tutelary role of the public powers over the emigrants and promoting the processes of family reunification, on the other side of the ocean.