So how could they afford to immigrate if they were so poor?

[johnlabarbera]

Does anyone know how our ancestors were able to afford immigration to the USA or elsewhere if they were so poor? I wonder how much a trip cost and if anyone subsidized it.

[mler]

I know his situation was unusual, but one of my granddads was a stowaway. Some, I know, worked on the ships as cooks and such. I would guess that many families sold most of what they owned to put together enough money for the trip.

[PeterTimber]

Initially contractors went thru the post unification devasted Italian countryside in the south recruiting manuallaborers for the burgeoning industrial revolution occuring inthe uSA after the civil war. The Padrones contracted with these large groups of men paying their fares and subtracting it from their wages in the USA with interest. The men would work for 12 tio 18 months, building the infrastruicture upon which our society grew.road,RR, dams, subways, mines,quarries, etc and then return to Italy with a few bucks but some remained and never went back while others wnet back and forth uintil slowly they started bringin in their families and became the nuceleus of the permanent immigration and that opend the way for the extended family to come to the USA and the money was loaned, property weas sold and debts were incurred.=Peter=