 In sharp contrast, most of the rest of the country (exceptions being South Florida and New Orleans) have very few Italian-American residents.During the labor shortage in the 19th and early 20th centuries, planters in the Deep South did attract some Italian immigrants to work as sharecroppers, but they soon left due to extreme anti-Italian discrimination and strict regimen of the plantations.According to a recent United Census Bureau estimate, 17.8 million Americans are of Italian descent.