• Giuseppe Perlungo waits tables at Gino’s, under the gaze of an icon from an earlier wave of Italian immigration, Gino Saccone and (below) Italian ambassador Pier Francesco Zazo. Photos by Steve Grant
FREMANTLE is experiencing a new wave of Italian immigrants unseen since the 1950s.
Dire unemployment and harsh austerity measures inflicted by a series of Italian governments have prompted thousands of young Italians to follow in the footsteps of their aunts and uncles to the “lucky country”.
Italy’s new ambassador to Australia, Pier Francesco Zazo, told the Herald this week the latest figures he’d been given indicated 16,000 Italians—mostly young—made their way to Australia in the last year.
“Many of them go to Western Australia,” Mr Zazo said during a flying visit to the port city on Tuesday as part of a nation-wide tour.
Influence
According to Susanna Iuliano, author of Vite Italiane: Italian Lives in Western Australia, that almost matches the annual peak of 17,000 post-World War II, when many of the Italians who pioneered Fremantle’s fishing and food industries arrived.
Amongst the new wave, Sicilian Giuseppi Perlungo arrived in Fremantle with his girlfriend in November last year, and is now waiting tables at Gino’s, a cafe synonymous with the Italian influence on Fremantle.
“I come from a small village of 12,000 people (Fremantle’s sister city Capo D’Orlando) and from November to now 20 people from that one village have come to Fremantle,” Mr Perlungo said. Three of his uncles had made the trip in 1946.
On a one-year student visa, Mr Perlungo studies English during mornings, but like most others dreams of scoring a decent job, studying further and making a new life here.
Unlike many of his compatriots (including his architect girlfriend) he had a job in Sicily; he was a quality controller in the food industry with 50 staff.
“I leaving my job because I was not happy about my salary or prospects,” he said.
With Italy still recovering from the mountain of debt it collected during the GFC, he says his wages were 10 per cent of what he’d receive for the equivalent job in Australia. Survival was the name of the game, he says, and it would be impossible to find time to juggle work and study as he does here.
Mr Zazo told the Herald youth unemployment in Italy varied between the north and south, but the average was 20 – 25 per cent. While researching this story, the Herald saw references to 38 per cent youth unemployment in some pockets at the height of the GFC.
Mr Zazo says one of his roles is to hose down some of the enthusiasm, saying many Italians came expecting “El Dorado” down under.
“We are carefully watching the situation because it’s a new type of immigration,” he says.
“It’s not so easy because many young Italians who move here, they are not well informed about Australia.”
One issue is that Australia and Italy signed a bilateral agreement in 2004 which ensured each other’s visitors were covered by third party insurance. However, it only lasts six months and many a wayward driver on a 12-month visa has found themselves facing a stiff bill after a prang.
But Mr Zazo said the biggest problem is people relying on a lucky break that never arrives: “Don’t come here and expect to find a job if you don’t speak a word of English,” he warned.
Highly skilled
But he also notes that many are highly skilled, as Italy is the world’s eighth largest economy and its manufacturing industry is surprisingly strong.
Laura Saccone now runs the iconic cafe which bears her father Gino’s name. Along with Nunzio Gumina at Papa Luigis a few doors down, the former tailor paved the way for the now-famous Cappuccino Strip.
Ms Saccone says she’s got 10 recently-arrived Italians on the books who wait tables, wash dishes and—most importantly—brew espressos.
“They’re all baristas, and some have had their own businesses,” she says, beaming at the sudden influx of Italian experience.
“And we get a dozen more a week coming in looking for work.”
Former Fremantle councilor John Alberti, himself an Italian immigrant and the recipient of this year’s citizen of the year award, says the influx has been extraordinary.
“You can see them walking through Freo, you can see them working in Benny’s or Gino’s,” Cr Alberti said. “My cousin lives in Turin, and he rings me and says a friend of his son is coming here.”
by STEVE GRANT