[Emigration and immigration in Italy. (1861-2011)]

The creation of the Italian Kingdom was characterized by the mass emigration of Italian people, mainly peasants towards European and American destinations. Poverty, unemployment, diseases, like pellagra, malaria and tubercolosis forced millions of Italians to leave the Country. The phenomenon of emigration is usually divided in three periods: the mass emigration from 1976 to 1914, the second one between the two world wars, the third one from 1946 to 1976. In the last quarter of the 20th century the number of repatriations overcome expatriations and the number of immigrants from Albania, Romania, Senegal, Tunisia, China, Philippines grew up becoming more and more important. Italy was a country of emigrants, now is a country of immigrants. It is difficult to compare the work conditions of the Italian emigrants with the new immigrants. At the end of the 19th Century or in the first decades of the 20th Century there were no consideration for human rights, no legislations to protect workers. Immigration from North Africa and from all the low and middle income countries should be studied in all its aspects because it will characterize our future. In the new era of economical globalization, Universities should prepare the new medical doctors to extend their professional culture to a international dimension to be able to cope with the new challenges of our time.