Sicilian Americans (Sicilian: Sìculu-miricani; Italian: Siculoamericani) are Americans of Italian Sicilian birth or ancestry. They are a large ethnic group in the United States. The first Sicilians who came to the territory that is now the United States were explorers and missionaries in the 17th century under the Spanish crown. Sicilian emigration to the United States then increased significantly in the starting from before 1880 to 1906, Direct connections by sea departed from the ports of Palermo and Castellammare del Golfo. Since emigration from Sicily began in the United States before the unity of Italy, and reached its peak at a time when regional differences were still very strong and marked, both linguistically and ethnically, many of the Sicilian immigrants identified (and still identify) primarily on a regional rather than a national basis. Today, there are many studies also dedicated to the history of Sicilian Americans. The Sicilian-American community includes people born in Sicily who immigrated to the United States, or born in the United States to Sicilian parents, as well as their third, fourth, etc. generation descendants, who identify as belonging to such community. History Sicilian emigration to the United States grew substantially starting in the 1880s to 1914, when it was cut off by World War I. Many Sicilians planned to return home after a few years making money in the United States, but the wartime delay allowed many to assimilate into better jobs and wartime experience, so they did not return. By 1924, about 4,000,000 Sicilians emigrated to the US. The Emergency Quota Act, and the subsequent Immigration Act of 1924 sharply reduced immigration from Southern Europe except for relatives of Sicilians already in the U.S. This period saw political and economic shifts in Sicily that made emigration desirable. There was also a large wave of immigration after World War II. A great portion of the Sicilian immigrants would settle in New York City, New Jersey, New Haven, Buffalo, Rochester, Erie, Tampa, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Boston, Pittston, Johnston, Rhode Island, Detroit, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Orleans, Milwaukee, and Birmingham. During the 1800s, Italian Americans, particularly Sicilians, were often not considered “white.” Upon immigration, many were required to list their race as “Southern Italian” or “Sicilian” rather than white. In certain parts of the South during the Jim Crow era, Sicilian even more so than Italians generally were affected by its discriminatory policies. Sicilians were sometimes more