The Campisciano - commenced to migrated out of Sicily back in the 17th century, things must have been very hard for them.
The Aragonese Spanish period in history tells us, that they got over taxed and exploited, If this was not bad enough, the unification of Italy and the associated politics drove the Island into further economic decline, with this the rural towns suffering the most.

A form of forced migration -
The Barbary Corsairs, sometimes called Ottoman Corsairs or Barbary Pirates, were Muslim pirates and privateers who operated from North Africa from the time of the Crusades (11th century) until the early 19th century. Based in North African ports such as Tunis, Tripoli, Algiers, éSal, and other ports in Morocco, they sailed mainly along the stretch of northern Africa known as the Barbary Coast. Their predation extended throughout the Mediterranean and Atlantic ocean.

This activity destroyed thousands of French, Spanish, Italian and English ships and long stretches of coast in Spain and Italy were almost completely abandoned by their inhabitants, discouraging settlement until the 19th century. From the 16th to 19th century, pirates captured an estimated  800,000 to 1.25 million Europeans as slaves, mainly from seaside villages in Italy, Spain, and Portugal, but also from France, England, the Netherlands, Ireland and as far away as Iceland and North America. The most famous corsairs were the brothers Hayreddin Barbarossa ("Redbeard") and çOru Reis, who took control of Algiers in the early 16th century, beginning the four hundred years Ottoman Empire presence in North Africa and establishing a centre of Mediterranean piracy.

The Ottomans took control of Tunisia 1n 1574, one can assume that captured Italian slaves existed as a community in Tunis at that time.
The Amirs of Tunisia treated the Italians well, the way of life was far better then in Sicily, the word got back and families voluntarily migrated to Tunisia, marking this the first period of migration out of Sicily. In 1831 the French took control and slavery of Christians was abolished in Tunisia.

After Unification and the end of the American civil war, prospects for work opened up in the American continent. Many families from rural areas left for the new world in search of a better future. The 1880s.was a period that Sicilians departed the island, arriving in large numbers in New Orleans, for many the first view of America, was that of a bustling city of mixed cultures, a rough city with cultural divides, French, Spanish, Irish, English, and the indigenous Creole.
New Orleans served as the gateway to the new world for approximately 25 years, followed by New York in later times. The migration from Sicily and Calabbria would continue with surges in numbers taking place after WW1 then after WW2 Into countries like Australia, Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela up to the early 1960’s.