Why do some Italians Look down to Sicilians?

Question

Why do some Italians Look down to Sicilians?

Answer 1

I'm Italian...

Well, you'd be surprised to know that the most of people who look down to southern Italians are...ex southern Italians.

There are a lot of people, who come from or have origins in Sicily, Calabria, Neaples and so on and, once they get to live in Milan, Turin, and so on, feel like they're always been northern Italians and they feel superior than the southern ones.

In Italy, we even have a political party who wants the secession, so you'll understand this is unbelievable...

I think that nothern Italians think they are superior because they are more and better lernt (dunno if this is right to say, but I bet you'll understand me), and so on. More over, in southern Italy we have Mafia, 'Ndrangheta and Camorra that here at the North we don't have, and also this let some Italians think we, the nothern ones, are better.

Another "difference" is, that in southern Italy, we have a lot of... I dunno how to say it, so I'll try to explain it... in the hospitals, in the southern regions, there are more bad health cases than in the northern regions. So this is another reason that "better Italians" take to look down to southern ones..

Personally, I have Calabrian origins and Milan origins and, trust me, I don't feel better than anyone. But, as you may have understood, some of us do, stupidly...

Answer 2

The northern Italians look down on Sicilians for various reasons. The largest problem that I've experenced is that the north was established before the south formed, so the North had more business and was richer. Sicily was poorer..........known for the mafia for a period of time, northern Italians were furious.

Answer 3

Is there a valid reason anyone looks down on anyone else?

Answer 4

my professor said southern italians are lazy.

however, my bf is from the south and he is the biggest workaholic residing in the us today...

Answer 5

I think its because the south of Italy is generally thought of being poorer than the North.

Answer 6

i dont know

Answer 7

consider that mafia is from Sicily and u'll have an answer....

but still i don't look down at 'em and i'm italian,so i'd say u'r just stereotyping

Answer 8

It has always been bad in the South because most of all your Industry is in the central or the north  and the Sicilan's to the south have always been poor.

  I lived in Sicily for 13 years and the only way I made a living was I was working on a Military (American) and so I was doing good but I couldn't go up any more so I left and it was sad to leave but it was a choice I had to make.

Answer 9

The North is richer, and therefore its inhabitants think themselves better than the Southerners (as it happens in many countries where a region is richer than another).

It has not always been so. Up to 1600 or so, there was little difference in wealth between North and South. Then the North industrialized, while the South remained mostly feudal.

Reasons abound, the North was perhaps better governed, it had better trade routes with the rest of Europe, it was more urbanized, with a growing middle class.

Also, in the South (especially in Sicily and near Neaples) the organized crime is very strong and this hinders development (thus increasing poverty, which supports higher crime, and so on, it's a vicious circle).