Italians are a migratory people. Since 1800 over 27 million Italians have left home, but over half have returned to Italy. As cosmopolitans, exiles, and "workers of the world," they transformed their homeland and many of the countries where they worked or settled abroad.Drawing on a wide range of studies of Italian migrants to a dozen different countries, Gabaccia puts the modern Italian diaspora in historical context, charting the emergence of this once regionally fragmented diaspora as a nationally conscious cultural group.Italy's Many Diasporas provides an ambitious and theoretically innovative overview, examining the social, cultural, and economic integration of Italian migrants. It explores their complex yet distinctive identity and their relationship with their homeland.