Verso l’Africa? Le migrazioni interne in periodo fascista e la (mancata) mobilità coloniale dei sardi

The article analyses the mobility from the island of Sardinia to the Italian colonies during the late Thirties, in order to relate the history of emigration from Sardinia in the XXth Century to the social and economic situation of the island during Fascism, and the role of migration and colonisation within the Fascist project of re-shaping the nation. At the same time, the article connects in a single frame of interpretation both external and internal migration, including colonial mobility. It compares the already existing studies on the part played by Sardinia in the Regime’s population policy with archival sources about the requests for Sardinian people wanting to reach Africa. Despite the difficult economic situation of the island, and unlike what happened in other regions, most of the applications by unemployed people or workers looking for better salaries and better lives were rejected by the Commission for Migration and Internal Colonisation. In order to realize their «colonial dream», Sardinian people could reach the colonies as soldiers more easily. The failure of colonial migration attempts bolsters the idea that Sardinia played a peculiar role in the population project of the Regime, a plan that in the long term not only aimed to relocate Italian people to the island, but also to settle Sardinian people there.