The article takes stock of a new paradigm in contemporary Italy: the increase in foreign immigration, from 1945 to today. Four periods are considered in relation to this theme: the Constituent Assembly in 1947; the immigrants from Jugoslavia to the Trieste area in 1968; immigrants from Tunisia to Sicily in 1972; the murder of Jerry Masslo in Villa Literno (Caserta) in 1989. Historians can, the paper argues, reconsider contemporary Italy - from 1945 up today - by looking closer at foreign immigration
Keywords: Italia contemporanea, Immigrazione, Politiche migratorie