During the Reconstruction years, the Italian Government considered mass migration as the most effective tool to prevent social conflict and to favor economic restructuring. At the same time, Italian emigration underwent one of its most difficult periods because of the restrictive immigration policies adopted by many nations. The public opinion surveys carried out by Doxa in those years show the painful contrast between the limited number of workers welcomed abroad and the enormous number of candidates for expatriation; the propensity to emigration by region and by socio-demographic groups; the lasting importance of the "chain migration"; the declining propensity to emigrate because of the lack of assistance by the Italian State and the mishaps encountered abroad; the sharp contrast between the desired destination of most people - the US above all - and the actual one.