Donne e Buoi Dai Paesi Tuoi
(Choose Women and Oxen from your Home Town)

In November 1961, Lidia Zaffiro, a twenty one year old woman from a small town in the Veneto region of North-Eastern Italy, married a man living half a world away in Canada.  The wedding ceremony was conducted in Italy with Lidia's own father acting as a 'proxy' or stand in for the groom Francesco Santin, a man almost twenty years Lidia's senior who ten years previously, had emigrated from the same village.  One month after the proxy marriage, dressed in her white bridal suit and high heeled shoes, Lidia boarded a plane in Rome and flew to Calgary, Alberta where Francesco was waiting to collect his young bride.  Although Lidia had been warned about the harshness of the Canadian winter, she was not prepared for the sight of endless, ever deepening snow drifts as the newlyweds drove hundreds of kilometres through dense forest to their new home in a remote mining camp near Invermere, north-eastern British Columbia.  Like many other immigrant women embarking on new lives far from their friends and families, Lidia was both thrilled and nervous about emigrating to Canada.  Yet her apprehensions were compounded by the fact that she had entered into marriage with a man who was a virtual stranger to her.  Lidia recalled, "I was excited at having made such a trip on my own and having come to a husband - finally I had a man!  But I don't think I was in love with him then...I became in love with him after..."[24]

                Lidia Zaffiro's experience of marriage and immigration to a foreign land to be with a husband she scarcely knew was by no means unique.  In the nineteen fifties and sixties, marriages by proxy commonly took place between Italian nationals (usually women) and Italian immigrants in both Canada and Australia.  Such marriages were performed when the physical absence of either the bride or groom made it necessary for a stand in or 'proxy' to register consent to the marriage on behalf of the missing party.  This particular form of marriage ceremony had been a part of Canonical tradition since the Council of Trent in the sixteenth century.  Proxy marriages were later incorporated into the civil marriage codes of many European, Latin American and South American nations.[24]   Although this form of marriage had been outlawed in Italy following Unification, the 1929 Concordat between the Papacy and the Fascist State restored the Catholic Church's power to grant couples the right to marry by proxy in Italy.  This right was adopted in the revised Italian Civil Code of 1942.  While proxy marriages were recognized primarily as a way to enable members of the armed forces to marry outside the country during war-time, non-military personnel could also choose to marry in this fashion if they convinced a priest that 'serious reasons' impeded a couple's physical presence at the marriage ceremony.[24]   There were no legal provisions which allowed proxy marriages to be solemnized in Australia or Canada, however marriages contracted by proxy between Italian citizens and Australian or Canadian residents were accepted as legitimate by Government authorities in both countries. 

                Unfortunately, little has been written about the phenomenon of Italian proxy marriages in Australia or Canada, partly because of the stigma attached to these weddings by some immigrants who regarded their marriages as an embarrassing secret to be hidden from friends, families and neighbours at all costs.[24]  The sense of shame associated with marriage by proxy was to a certain extent fostered by the sensationalist publicity given to these unions throughout the nineteen fifties and sixties in Italian language newspapers in Australia and Canada.  Stories of proxy marriages gone wrong made good copy, just as they proved to be excellent material for operatic melodrama thirty years later.  In 1991, the Western Australian Opera Company premiered Bride of Fortune, an original production that told the story of an Italian immigrant couple married by proxy in post-war Australia.  In the opera, Grazia, a Calabrian peasant woman marries Vito, an Italo-Australian immigrant living in a dingy inner city Melbourne flat.  On her arrival in Australia, Grazia discovers that she has been duped by her proxy husband who is an older, crippled, abusive alcoholic struggling to support a daughter from a previous marriage in Italy.  The tragedy escalates after the death of Vito's daughter sends him over the edge.  Vito blames the long suffering Grazia for the death and holds her hostage in a siege which ends in a sensational police shoot-out.  In the melodramatic finale, the curtain falls on the ill-fated Grazia who slips her wedding ring on Vito's finger in a symbolic gesture of reconciliation as she cradles her dying husband in her arms.[24]  

                I want to move away from the notion that proxy marriages were a form of immigrant tragedy as presented in Bride of Fortune.  Rather, my aim is to examine the phenomenon of Italian proxy marriages in the context of broader issues relating to Italo-Australian and Italo-Canadian migration after World War Two.  The occurrence of proxy marriages between Italian women and Italian immigrant men can be used as a window to examine some of the similarities and differences in the immigration experience of Italians in post-war Australia and Canada.  Italian women entered into proxy marriages with immigrant men in both Commonwealth nations in part because of the limited opportunities available to single women in post-war Italy and the social taboo against the mobility of single females.  Instead of being cast as victims, I argue that Italian women chose marriage by proxy as a way to expand the limited opportunities available to them in close-knit, patriarchal societies which did not sanction the emigration of lone females.  For their part, Italian immigrant men in Australia and Canada chose to marry Italian proxy brides rather than native Australian or Canadian women because of similar ethnic specific gender stereotypes which depicted Italian women as more suitable wives because of their alleged chasteness and dedication to family life.  While the reasons why Italian men and women entered into proxy marriages in both countries are much the same, the reactions of the Australian and Canadian government to marriages by proxy varied, largely because of the difference in sex-ratios of Italo-Canadian and Italo-Australian men and women in the post-war period. 

Frequency and timing of Italian proxy marriages in post-war Australia and Canada.

The logical starting point for a discussion of Italian proxy marriages is to ascertain the number of Italian nationals and Italian immigrants who wed by proxy in Australia and Canada.  Despite the considerable amount of documentation involved in the process of contracting a proxy marriage, following the 'paper trail' to specify the exact number of Italian proxy marriages which took place in Australia and Canada has been difficult.  As proxy weddings were performed in Italy, much of the paperwork, if indeed it still exists, is sitting in local parish archives in small towns dotted all over the Italian peninsula.  As my research was conducted exclusively in Australia and Canada, I have had to rely on other sources to quantify the phenomenon of Italian proxy marriages in both countries.  The Italian ethnic press has been one important source of information.  Italian language newspapers in cities as far afield as Sydney, Perth, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver all contained references to proxy marriages, particularly in the early nineteen fifties.  Advertisements for proxy brides, informative articles on how to contract proxy marriages and photographs of smiling proxy couples appeared alongside stern lectures on the hazards of proxy marriage and letters from jilted proxy spouses in newspapers such as Montreal's Il Cittadino Canadese, and Sydney's La Fiamma.  There is also mention made of Italian proxy marriages in notes of the Australian and Canadian immigration officials during the early post-war period.  However, the most valuable source of information on the numbers of Italian proxy weddings which took place in Australia and Canada after World War Two is the Catholic Church. 

                Unfortunately, the Catholic Church in both Canada and Australia has generally been reluctant to its allow researchers access to proxy marriage records.  However, I have been able to obtain access to figures on Italian proxy marriages for the Archdiocese of Perth, Western Australia, and Montreal Quebec.  In Western Australia from 1938 to 1971, there were a total of nine hundred and twenty three instances of proxy marriages between Italian nationals and Italian immigrants resident in the state.[24]  As each record represents two people, approximately eighteen hundred Italians were involved in proxy marriages in Western Australia, mostly during the nineteen fifties (particularly in the years from 1951 to 1955 when over half of the total number of proxy marriages listed were contracted.)[24]   Eighteen hundred Italian born proxy spouses represents around eight percent of the total number of incoming Italian immigrants who settled permanently in the state during the post-war period.[24]   If the Western Australia statistics are in any way indicative of the larger Australia-wide picture, then as many as twenty four thousand Italo-Australians who settled permanently in Australia after World War Two were married by proxy.[24]   With a more limited pool of available or accessible Italian brides due to the relatively small size of the Italian born population in Western Australia and the state's greater isolation from other centres of Italian settlement, proxy marriage may have been a more viable and attractive option for Italian bachelors in Western Australia.  However, the attention accorded to the subject of proxy marriages in east-coast Italo-Australian newspapers such as La Fiamma  and Il Globo  in the 1950s and 1960s suggests that proxy marriages were also important for Italians in other parts of Australia, not just Western Australia. 

                From a Canadian perspective, quantifying proxy marriages also proved difficult.  In the archival records of Archdiocese of Toronto, the city which boasted the largest Italian settlement in post-war Canada, there are frequent references to proxy marriages during the 1950s in correspondence between local parish priests and officials of the Archdiocese.  Strangely, despite the ample qualitative evidence suggesting that Italian proxy marriages were fairly common throughout the 1950s in Toronto, (common enough to warrant being called a 'problem'[24]), there was no clear indication of the numbers of people who contracted marriages by proxy in Toronto.  Fortunately, quantification of the phenomenon of Italian proxy marriages is possible for the city of Montreal, home to largest 'Little Italy' in Canada in the period before 1945 and the second largest Italo-Canadian colony during the post-war period.  Records of the Archdiocese of Montreal confirm that approximately two thousand proxy marriages involving four thousand immigrants took place in Montreal between the years 1952 and 1982.[24]   While no figures are available detailing the number of Italian proxy marriages in other provinces across Canada, frequent references to proxy weddings in Italian language newspapers in British Columbia suggest that proxy marriages involving Italian immigrants were not exclusive to the central provinces of Quebec and Ontario.  

                Information about the frequency and timing of Italian proxy marriages from both the Western Australia and Montreal Archdiocese suggests that the heyday of proxy weddings involving Italians in both countries occurred during the early 1950s. 

It is no coincidence that the popularity of Italian proxy marriages in Australia and Canada was at its peak when the sex-ratio imbalance between male and female Italian immigrants was especially pronounced in the early post-war period.  Initially, migration chains from Italy to Canada and Australia were composed of higher proportions of men, particularly amongst single migrants.  In 1951, for every one hundred Italian-born women, there were one hundred and seventy three Italian born men resident in Canada.[24].  The gender ratios between Italian men and women was even more skewed in Australia.  In 1954, for every one hundred Italian born women, there were two hundred and three Italian born men living settled in Australia.[24].  Alarmed by the sex-ratio imbalance amongst Italians, immigration officials in both Commonwealth countries prioritised the migration of Italian women, particularly single women, in their entry quotas in the mid to late 1950s.  By 1961, the proportion of Italian men to women in Canada and Australia was somewhat more even with one hundred and twenty five Italian men per one hundred Italian women in Canada, and one hundred and forty three Italian men per one hundred Italian women resident in Australia.[24]  As the pool of available Italian brides grew larger in Australia and Canada, the incidence of proxy marriages amongst Italian immigrants tapered off. 

Reasons for choosing to marry by proxy

                The shortage of Italian women in Australia and Canada in the early post-war period does not in itself explain why Italian immigrants, most commonly men, chose to enter into proxy marriages with Italian brides.  Proxy marriages did not arise solely because of Italian immigrant men's limited opportunities to meet and marry Italian women in Australia and Canada.  Rather, weddings by proxy were an expression of Italian men's preference for Italian women, or more specifically women from their own home town or province.  'Campanilismo', the sense of loyalty and attachment to place experienced by all those within earshot of the church bell tower or 'campanile' , was an important factor in the making of proxy marriages.  Figures for Western Australia indicate that the majority of proxy spouses (56%) married people from the same home town.  A smaller yet substantial proportion (26%) of proxy brides and grooms chose partners from another town within their home province.  The degree of home town and provincial endogamy for proxy partners was much higher than the equivalent in-marriage rate for Italian born people married in Western Australia between 1945 and 1965.  A study of almost five thousand marriages involving Italian born spouses in the state during this time period, revealed that only eighteen percent of Italians married partners who hailed from the same home town and an equal number chose marriage partners who came from the same province.[24]   The lower rates of parochial and provincial endogamy for Italian immigrants in Western Australia reflects the fact that people thousands of miles away from their homes will be less likely to find a partner from the same place of origin.  However, even in relation to Italian statistics for home-town endogamy, the numbers of proxy spouses in Western Australia who chose partners from the same town or province of origin are still remarkably high.  In Fate and Honor, Family and Village (1979) Rudolph Bell found that local endogamy rates for a sample of towns in Sicily, Emilia Romagna, Campania and Calabria for the years 1946 to 1973 ranged from twenty nine percent to fifty one percent.[24]   Compared to these figures, the rate of home-town endogamy for Italian proxy spouses in Western Australia is even more impressive.

                The factors underlying the prevalence of home town and provincial in-marriage for proxy spouses are not hard to fathom.  Parochial endogamy is directly linked to the manner in which proxy marriages were contracted.  Some proxy marriages were set up through friends or priests who would act as intermediaries pairing lonely immigrant men in Australia with single women in Italy.  In other instances, proxy spouses were already well known to each other, having been engaged prior to the immigration of one of the partners, usually the male.  However, according to the proxy brides I interviewed in Australia and Canada, most proxy marriages were arranged by members of the bride's or groom's immediate family who were usually resident in Italy.  Mindful of the old Italian adage, 'donne e buoi dai paesi tuoi' (choose women and oxen from your home town), the parents, siblings, uncles and aunts of Italian immigrants in Australia who helped forge proxy marriages usually looked no further than their own towns for suitable brides or grooms.  The advantage of choosing a proxy partner from the same town was that the groom or bride's family reputation could be known and used to help establish a level of trust with regard to the legitimacy of the marriage offer and the character of the respective spouse.  As long as the families were known to one another, then proxy spouses were not complete strangers. 

                By involving the family in partner selection, proxy spouses were behaving like many other men and women in the Italian marriage market in the nineteen fifties and sixties.  The importance of family in vetting potential marriage candidates and mediating in the courtship and engagement rituals in the prelude to marriage has been recognized by many historians of the family in Italy and of Italian migration.[24]  In the Sting of Change: Sicilians in Sicily and Australia, Constance Cronin argued that both the nuclear and extended family in post-war Sicily played a huge role in the marriage making procedure by gathering information on the intended spouse and his/her family then using this information to judge the suitability of the match.[24]   The family also took part in the marriage ritual by chaperoning the couple during the engagement period to ensure the sexual purity of the bride until her marriage.  Marriages by proxy were a way to continue the traditional Italian pattern of family participation in the marriage making process in the face of great challenges resulting from the geographic dislocation of the intended bride or groom from his/her family in Italy after emigration.  Parents or relatives could hand pick a 'suitable' proxy partner for their far-away immigrant son (or daughter), have direct involvement in arranging and witnessing the wedding, and even engage in the nuptial ceremony itself by physically representing the bride or groom (most commonly the groom) in the exchange of vows.  Proxy marriages also helped safeguard family honour by ensuring that the sexuality of young Italian immigrant women was contained within the marriage framework.  If Italian women emigrated as fiancées, their families ran the risk of being shamed by the independence and possible sexual freedom of their daughters or sisters, (particularly if the marriage was not carried through to plan on arrival in Australia).  Furthermore, if there were no family members available to chaperone the betrothed couple in Australia, there was the fear that pre-marital sex would occur between the partners.  In contrast, proxy marriages were usually a 'done deal'.  If a proxy union was not consummated, then theoretically it could be annulled.  However, dissolving a proxy marriage was far more complicated than simply breaking off an engagement.  Therefore, marriage by proxy ensured that family honour, invested in the sexuality of its female members, could be guarded more effectively.

                Aside from showing the strength of campanilismo amongst Italian migrants and the adaptation of traditional family participation in the marriage making procedure, the phenomenon of Italian proxy marriages also brings to light the kinds of options available to single women in Italy in the early post-war period.  When I interviewed proxy brides in Australia and Canada, the desire to emigrate was the strongest, most commonly stated reason for marrying by proxy.  Emigration for a single female from many parts of Italy in the nineteen fifties and sixties, particularly in rural areas, was virtually impossible unless the woman had a husband, fiancé, father or some other family member who could look after her well-being once she stepped off the boat in Australia or Canada.  This feature of Italian immigration was recognized as a problem by Australian immigration officials who complained, "There has always been a reluctance on the part of Italian authorities to allow single girls to travel to Australia in their own right...this is probably due to the general attitude of Italians towards the welfare of their women folk".[24].  Proxy marriages made leaving Italy possible for women who otherwise had no other family or relatives in Australia to facilitate their emigration. 

                There is a possibility that the stress most proxy brides I interviewed placed on emigration as a motivating factor in their marriages was simply an easier, less personal way to explain their decision to marry by proxy.  Only more interviews with proxy brides will resolve this question.  More research also needs to be done on the socio-economic backgrounds of these women in order to determine whether factors such as dowry, or rather the lack of a dowry, influenced their decision to marry by proxy.  For example, Lidia Zaffiro, a proxy bride from a small town near Verona in the region of Veneto, explained that by entering into a proxy marriage, her parents were able to forego providing a dowry for her and indeed even received payment from her proxy husband as 'compensation' for the loss of their daughter's earning power.  Lidia also described how her work experiences outside of her small home town influenced her decision to marry by proxy.  Because she had worked as a seasonal rice planter in the Vercelli region of Piedmont from the age of thirteen, her occupational mobility had cast a shadow over her sexual purity and consequently her value on the local marriage market had diminished.  Therefore in order to marry, Lidia looked further afield to find a husband, an Italo-Canadian immigrant twenty years her senior whom she married by proxy in 1961.[24] 

                Focusing specifically on Italian men's motives for marrying by proxy, apart from the shortage of Italian women,

gender specific ethnic stereotypes fostered marriage by proxy and discouraged unions between Italian men and Canadian and Australian women.  Put simply, Italian immigrant men in Australia and Canada generally considered non-Italian women as sexually promiscuous, independent women who would make unfaithful wives and poor mothers.  Giovanni, a bachelor who emigrated from Lombardy to Western Australia in the early 1950s explained that the only type of Australian woman who interacted with Italian men in the early post-war period was not the 'respectable' marrying kind.  In Giovanni's words, "If an Australian girl went with an Italian boy - you knew she had nothing more to lose".[24]   Prejudice against Italian men also encouraged proxy weddings between Italians.  The stereotype of the 'latin lothario' was very much alive in the minds of Australian women during the 1950s.  "Our Australian girls do not readily accept their [Italian men's] friendship." explained the Western Australian State Secretary of the Women's Service Guild in a letter to Harold Holt, then Minister for Immigration in 1954.[24]   The Women's Service Guild, a national organization of mostly middle class women who were active in the Good Neighbour Movement and the Natonal Citizenship Conventions were most concerned about the "grave moral problems" resulting from the immigration of large numbers of single Italian men to Australia and petitioned Harold Holt to increase the flow of single Italian women in order encourage the more permanent settlement of Italians.  Not all Australian women were reluctant to associate with Italian men, but if an Australian woman dared to date an Italian, this was often taken as a sign of her lack of 'feminine virtue'.  As one Anglo-Australian woman explained, "in the fifties I had an Italian boyfriend.  It was terrible... the Aussie guys I knew, who had never noticed me before, started making sexual passes at me and yelling sexual abuse at me when we walked down the street". [24]

                The image of Italian men as dangerous sexual predators was also very much alive and well in Canada.  In a special feature which appeared in the Montreal Italian publication Il Cittadino Canadese  (The Canadian Citizen) in 1964 and ran for several weeks, Italian men in Montreal were asked for their opinions on Canadian women and vice-versa. Many Canadian women interviewed in the newspaper's survey expressed a positive albeit stereotypical view of the Italian man as happy, impulsive and sensual..  When it came to marriage though, most women expressed their reluctance to enter into serious relationships with Italian men on the grounds that, "there is too much difference in upbringing"[24]  Some Canadian women were less tactful and more vehement in their disdain for Italian men.  Miss Crepeau of Montreal complained, "Italian men are renown as first class Don Juan's, but the Italian men here in Canada make me laugh!  They may be different in Italy - but here, their vulgarity, their rudeness and inappropriate requests disgust me!".[24]   As for Italian men's feelings towards Canadian women, their one recurring criticism of Canadian women centred around the issue of sexuality.  Editorial assistant P. Vitulli argued, "My main belief about Canadian women is this: for the most part, they are 'easy women'.  I speak of that 'easiness' which usually makes an Italian think badly of a woman.  I have found that Canadian women have little sense of shame, they sin as much as possible, then they go beating their chests with guilt to church - what Hypocrisy!"[24]   By contrast, Italian women were regarded as more virtuous and chaste.  In the words of Antonio Loprieno of Montreal, "With Italian women there is still the possibility of finding her 'intact' on the wedding night.  I would never marry a woman from here (Canada), because I know too well that before the honeymoon she has already made love in a hotel..".[24]

Official reaction to proxy marriages in Australia and Canada

                While there are many similarities in the timing, frequency and reasons why Italians entered into proxy marriages in post-war Australia and Canada, the government response to such marriages differed in each national context.  Although Australian immigration officials did not actively facilitate proxy marriages between Italians, they prioritised proxy brides alongside wives, fiancées and dependent children in the personal nomination scheme from at least as early as 1954.[24]   Although  Australian authorities were aware of and at times concerned about Italian proxy marriages, Italians who married in this fashion were not mentioned frequently in official government documents.  It appears that Australian immigration authorities treated proxy spouses much as they would other Italian wives or husbands nominated for immigration by an Australian sponsor.  The fact that officials did not single out proxy brides (or grooms) for special comment is in itself an important point.  The significance of according proxy spouses and other married immigrants equal treatment becomes more apparent if the attitudes of Australian government are compared to those of North American authorities.

                Canadian immigration officials in the post-war period were far more cautious and concerned about Italian proxy marriages in the post-war period.  Canadian authorities feared that proxy marriages were part of an immigration entry racket and they sought to impose obstacles (such as testing a couple's familiarity with each other) in order to help prevent this form of marriage between Italians and Italo-Canadians.  The suspicion that Italians used proxy marriage for the sole purposes of immigration was confirmed in at least one court case in Quebec.  In the case of Lanzetta v. Falco heard in 1961, the plaintiff, Dame Lanzetta, successfully petitioned to have her proxy marriage to a Neapolitan man annulled on the grounds that the marriage was not contracted in 'good faith' and that the groom "had entered into the marriage with the one aim of immigrating to Canada...he did not want to know the plaintiff, nor live with her as man and wife, as his only idea was to set foot on American soil."[24]   The abuse of proxy marriage exemplified in the Falco-Lanzetta case, was precisely the kind of exploitation the Canadian Government were afraid that this form of marriage would foster.  The fear of a 'proxy bride racket' plagued immigration officers from the early 1950s.  Such suspicions were expressed openly by J.M. Knowles, the Officer-in-Charge of the Canadian Embassy Visa Office in Rome in a letter to the Director of Immigration in Ottawa in 1953.  Knowles argued,

                Proxy marriage with a complete stranger is foreign to Canadian custom...Proxy wives are nothing but glorified               fiancées and it is felt that they should be treated as such.  There is nothing actually to prevent a proxy wife from     refusing to live with her "husband" and obtaining a form of annulment after her arrival in Canada; there is every possibility, of course, of this developing into a racket, if it has not already done so, as I believe extremely likely.[24] 

                In order to curtail any potential immigration scam, proxy wives were not processed as 'wives' by Canadian immigration authorities but as fiancé(e)s.  What this meant in effect was that proxy spouses were security screened and treated "with no extra favourable consideration than would be granted to a mere fiancé(e) under the same circumstances"[24].  More importantly, immigration officers were advised to conduct stringent interviews with prospective immigrants who were proxy brides or grooms in order to ascertain whether the marriage was between persons who knew each other prior to making a visa application.  Canadian immigration officials also obliged the prospective proxy bride or groom to sign a statement which declared that their sole purpose in proceeding to Canada was to unite with their spouse.  The contract specified that the failure to cohabit with their proxy partner immediately upon entry would entail possible deportation.  If all this alone was not disincentive enough to discourage proxy marriages, immigration officers in Canada were also instructed to warn people who came forward with nominations for the immigration of proxy spouses that they were better off bringing the intended bride/groom forward as a fiancé(e).[24]

                Judged comparatively, it appears that the Australian government were much more accommodating with respect to the immigration of proxy wives and husbands from Italy than their Canadian counterparts.  The difference in the processing and treatment of proxy spouses may be related to the difference in the gender imbalance amongst Italo-Canadians.  Canadian immigration authorities were not prepared to go to the same lengths as the Australian government in according proxy spouses identical treatment to regular spouses because the gender imbalance between Italian immigrants in Canada was not as pronounced as in it was in Australia.  Therefore, Canada was more reluctant to sanction proxy marriages even if they would help to increase the numbers of women in Italo-Canadian communities and promote the more permanent settlement of Italian men.  Canada's more hard line attitude towards proxy marriages may also be explained in part by Canada's proximity to the United States.  Canadian immigration officials feared that proxy marriages were being exploited for immigration purposes not just to Canada, but also to the United States.  The Department of Citizenship and Immigration in Ottawa kept record of the American legislation on proxy marriages noting that although proxy unions were legally valid in many states, American consular officials did not recognize them for visa purposes, "the reason being that it is much too easy to arrange a marriage of convenience for the purpose of getting a person into the U.S.A.[24]   Although there is no record of any direct correspondence between American and Canadian immigration officials over the matter, Canadian bureaucrats were especially cautious about proceeding with visa processing for proxy spouses if there was any evidence that the bride or groom had close relatives living in the United States.[24]

Conclusion:

                Until a more comprehensive approximation of the numbers of Italian proxy marriages conducted in Australia and Canada is available, it is difficult to assess whether the Canadian government's more hard-line approach to proxy weddings translated into fewer Italo-Canadian proxy marriages compared to Australia.  What I have shown is that proxy marriages between Italian immigrants and Italian nationals did take place in Canada and Australia after World War Two.  Furthermore, these marriages happened frequently enough to rouse the attention of government, ecclesiastic and legal authorities, as well as ethnic organizations, most notably the Italian language press.  Although the personal motives for entering into these unions are many, the basic social and demographic factors which facilitated these marriages were common to both Australia and Canada.  These factors included:  a pronounced gender imbalance amongst Italo-Canadian and Italo-Australian immigrant communities, a preference for Italian brides as opposed to native women because of certain gender specific ethnic stereotypes, the limited opportunity for single women in Italy to emigrate as lone females, and finally the desire to continue the tradition of family involvement in the marriage making process, despite the problem of geographic distance occasioned by emigration.  Finally, proxy marriages revealed the strength of campanilismo  amongst Italian migrants in Australia and Canada and served to bolster parochial loyalties in Italian communities by enabling couples from the same home towns in Italy to be united in Canada or Australia.