Colonists or Migrants? The Political Debate on Returns From the Former Colonies in Post-war Italy

After World War II, the end of Italian colonialism was marked by the 1947 Peace Treaty and subsequent UN resolutions in 1949. From 1946 to 1949, postwar Italian governments sought to regain control of their lost colonies by crafting narratives emphasizing Italian colonists’ efforts to establish a “right” to “return to Africa.” This chapter, drawing from a range of sources including diplomatic archives and colonists’ associations, examines how labor emerged as the focal point in the reconstruction of Italy’s colonial history from 1946 onward. The narratives portrayed Italian colonialism as a migration of proletarians and lower-class individuals, distinguishing it from other European colonial powers’ exploitative practices. Examining the evolution of these narratives, this chapter assesses their impact on how post-war Italian society perceived its colonial history and depicted Italian former colonists as migrants.