In Search of a Better Life:
Emigration to Thunder Bay from a Small Town in Calabria  

by John Potestio
Publisher: Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society
 

Grimaldi is one of the great sending towns of Calabria, a region of the south of Italy from which thousands of people have emigrated to Canada and the rest of the world. Thunder Bay is home to the largest immigrant community of Grimaldesi anywhere in the world. In this work, the author examines the reasons why so many of these people have settled in the Lakehead, and describes the process of integration in an area of Canada that was vastly different than the Calabrian town from whence they came. In addition, relying on personal and family experiences, the author sheds some light on the significant changes that have occurred within the Grimaldesi immigrant community and offers insights into the significant phenomenon of return-migration.
John Potestio was born in Grimaldi, Italy, and came to Canada in 1953. He received his B.A. from Western University and his M.A. from Lakehead University. He taught social sciences for thirty-three years in various secondary schools before retiring in 1996. Some of his publications are The History of the Italian Mutual Benefit Society, The Memoirs of Giovanni Veltri, which he edited, and The Italian Immigrant Experience, and Thunder Bay's People which he co-edited with Antonio Pucci.

6" x 9", 182 p.