Italian(s) in the World (MLI2019)

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Italy is well known for its history of emigration – with millions leaving its borders to find new beginnings elsewhere in Europe, Africa, the Americas and the Asia-Pacific. They took with them the Italian language and established themselves in neighbourhoods called Little Italies. Italian mass migration ended in the 1980s, but a new wave of Italian migrants was triggered by the 2008-economic crisis. At the same time, the Italian language is widely studied and used as a second language in some countries even without a presence of Italian migrants, but because of prestige or historical links.