During the Italian diaspora, a term that refers to the mass immigration of people from their ancestral home land, most Italian immigrants arriving in the United States would have settled in the north east of the country, specifically in areas like New York, New Jersey, Chicago and Philadelphia.
The reason Italians came to the north east
If you look at a map of the areas that Italians immigrants to the United States eventually settled in, the answer to why they chose these particular areas becomes fairly obvious.
Indeed, I have read suggestions that the single most influential event that contributed to Italian immigration was the advent of a transatlantic shipping company in Genoa, Italy, and that this led to the north eastern seaboard becoming a hub for the Italian-American community.
Once transatlantic travel had become feasible, it was only a matter of time before immigrants would follow these 'trade routes' in search of employment.
In this context, it was the presence of established trade routes between the Italian peninsula and New York, for example, that resulted in the influx of immigrants, and which resulted in the famous scenes of Ellis Island brimming with weary-eyed, suitcase-pulling Italians.
Settling in the north east
For many Italian immigrants to the United States, travelling to America was something of a voyage into the unknown. Often, the cost of travelling would drain what little resources an immigrant might possess, and therefore Italians were desperate to find work upon their arrival in the US. The jobs available were generally low-skilled and low-paid, but they still provided sufficient incentive to cause Italians to flock to major cities like New York, Detroit, Chicago, Buffalo and Philadelphia where there was an abundance of employment in sectors like industry and construction. Essentially, once Italian immigrants had arrived to the United States, they went to where the work was, and their final destination was often a major city that offered the prospect of work and was close to their port of arrival.
