hello frank, I am Italian, and Naples, I joined this forum, several months ago, to answer your questions:

the difference between an associate and a made ,it that associate is not part of the family and can work for different families, the important is he can make more money, the associates may be Italian, but also black, Hispanic or other, if he is Italian by his father side ( first was required to be Italian by both parties) and makes a lot of money can be admitted into the family and become a made man, this means that if somebody want to kill him had to ask permission from the boss of his family, and other privileges.
Yes, the American Mafia can recruit italian members , in fact the gambino tried to restore the ''old bridge'' with the Sicilian Mafia, the bridge was interrupted after the bloody Mafia war of the 80s, the 2008 operation ''old bridge''didn't allow this happen.
As for the Italian neighborhoods still exist, but there are no longer the only mono-racial neighborhoods, Little Italy is about to be swallowed up by Chinatown, and it becomes increasingly difficult to find new recruits.
Spero ti esserti stato utile, se ti seve qualcos'altro mandami un messaggio privato, e bello vedere che non sono l'unico italiano in questo forum.


i'm italian,and prime minister silvio berlusconi, is not speaking in my name (furio fron naples)