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The Great European Immigration Wave to Argentina was a major source of economic growth and social change for Argentina. Beginning in the late 19th century, the wave consisted largely of Italian and Spanish immigrants, [1] though it did include other nationalities and ethnic groups, most notably a large Slavic and Jewish population. The rapid influx of European migrants led to immense population growth in Argentina, and the migrants were incredibly influential in the politics of the nation by introducing political concepts like labor unions and socialism into the country's political zeitgeist. [2] The remnants of the Immigration Wave of migrants are still visible in Argentina today, not only as a result of their influence on the country's economic and political history, but as cultural cornerstones in both urban and rural communities alike. Shifting labor markets and decreased reliance on European economics after the outbreak of World War I had a huge effect on European Migration to Argentina. These factors all lead to the end of the Great European Immigration Wave and began an era of Latin American politics primarily focused on domestic growth rather than the outsourcing of international labor. [3]
In Argentina, the economic demand for immigration, political support, and racial ideology of elites created strong conditions for a wave of Europeans to enter the country.
From the 1850s into the early 1900s, Argentina's national policy was one of maximizing immigration. [1] The Constitution of Argentina of 1853 promoted European immigration in its 25th article, which prohibited any barriers on immigration. [4] Only the "insane" and those with communicable diseases were not allowed. [1]
The Immigration and Colonization Act of 1876 further encouraged immigration by subsidizing lodging and transportation, and providing job placement support. [5] This law came at the forefront of the Great European Immigration Wave, and informed part of why Argentina became a mass destination for immigrants.
In comparison to many other Latin American countries at that time, Argentina offered higher wage opportunities for immigrants. [6] These wages were also significantly higher than those available in some of the main source countries like Italy, Spain, and Portugal. [6] Argentina possessed an untapped wealth of natural resources that created high demand for both skilled and unskilled labor. [6]
One salient motive for the promotion of European immigration was the belief that a large European population was needed to "modernize" the country. [7] Argentine intellectuals, such as Juan Bautista Alberdi, believed that population growth and population demographics were equally important to modernization. [1] Argentine elites associated the mestizo population with "backwardness" and as a hindrance to national progress. [1] Whiteness, however, was associated with civility and progress, making an all-white population the ideal. [8] By encouraging European immigration, Argentine elitists and intellectuals saw an opportunity to "whiten" the population and benefit from European technological innovations. [1] [7]
As a result of the immigration wave, Argentina's population was roughly four times larger in 1914 than it was in 1870. Roughly 6.6 million Europeans immigrated to Argentina within this timeframe. [9] While immigrants came from all over Europe, the three most represented countries of origin were Italy, Spain, and France. [5] Collectively, immigrants from these three countries accounted for over 5 million immigrants. [5] While the population increased, Argentine citizenship did not. Legal citizens made up 2.2% of the entire immigrant population by 1914. [9] However, Argentina's Citizenship Law gave citizenship to all persons born in Argentina. [10] The immigrants themselves did not become citizens, but their children did, which would create a new middle class. [10]
Gross immigration by nationality (1857–1940) | ||
---|---|---|
Nationality | Amount | Percentage of total |
Italy | 2,970,000 | 44.9% |
Spain | 2,080,000 | 31.5% |
France | 239 000 | 3.6% |
Poland [Note 1] | 180 000 | 2.7% |
Russia [Note 2] | 177 000 | 2.7% |
Ottoman Empire [Note 3] | 174 000 | 2.6% |
Germany | 152 000 | 2.3% |
Austro-Hungary | 111 000 | 1.7% |
United Kingdom [Note 4] | 75 000 | 1.1% |
Portugal [Note 5] | 65 000 | 1.0% |
Yugoslavia [Note 6] | 48 000 | 0.7% |
Switzerland | 44,000 | 0.7% |
Belgium | 26 000 | 0.4% |
Denmark | 18 000 | 0.3% |
United States | 12 000 | 0.2% |
Netherlands | 10,000 | 0.2% |
Sweden | 7000 | 0.1% |
Other nationalities | 223 000 | 3.4% |
Total [Note 7] | 6 611 000 |
Source: National Directorate of Migrations (DNM).
Economically, Argentina benefited from European immigration. During the wave of European immigration, Argentina’s percentage of world GDP grew from .99% to 2.42% as a result of immigrant labor. [11] Immigration helped connect Argentina to the global economy, as a 10% increase in immigrants from a particular origin country was roughly equal to an 8% increase in exports to that country. [11] With the influx of laborers, Argentina was able to expand its agricultural production and exportation. [7] The agricultural sector was equipped to handle the increase in laborers, as many rural property owners had uncultivated farm land. [7] By renting their land to immigrants, many rural towns were able to flourish with the cultivation of large land worked by European immigrant families. [7]
Beyond production, immigrants also aided Argentina's industrialization efforts. 70% of immigrants lived in urban areas in 1914, which was a ten percent increase over a twenty year period. [8] The increase in production additionally created a need for increased transportation networks. [1] To build these networks, Argentina again sought and supported immigrant labor. [1] In 1905, Argentine railroad companies sponsored the immigration of more than 20,000 Italians. [9]
The population of Argentina grew four-fold over the Great European Immigration Wave causing a change to the social structure of Argentina. [12] The Constitution of 1853 explicitly encouraged European immigrants as a tool to civilize and whiten the Argentine population. [12] The elites (the descendants of the Spanish colonial ruling class, along with a small group of wealthy European immigrants) believed that the Native peoples of Argentina were savages and that European immigrants "could industrialize the primitive country of Argentina." [7] This belief created a rigid hierarchical social structure defined by racial classifications, where Europeans were seen as superior to the Native and Black populations. [1] The early waves of immigration did not have an accepting culture for non-European people and displayed this through the mass killing of the Native and Black populations. In the War of the Triple Alliance (where Paraguay fought to preserve its sovereignty from Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay from 1864 to 1870), the population of Native and Black people declined in Argentina because they were killed in the war. [12]
The new middle class emerged from this influx of European immigrants. [7] The European immigrants provided labor to the untapped Argentine land. In addition to developing agricultural production these immigrants caused an increase in middle-class development. [7] Prior to the 1870s, Argentina exhibited a three-tiered class structure consisting of an elite, a ruling class, and a peasant class. Between 1870 and 1914, the once small middle class grew by 30%. [7] 46% of this emerging socio-economic group were European-born immigrants, according to a 1914 census. [13]
The higher pay in Argentina compared to Europe for manual labor attracted many immigrants causing crowded cities and higher crime. [1] Between 1887 and 1912 Buenos Aires's population tripled while the number of crimes reported increased seven times. [6] In Buenos Aires, it was estimated that an average immigrant family contained five people in a one-room house that was twelve by twelve feet. [1] The crowded cities were also a central point in crime. There was a rapid increase in thieves, pickpockets, racketeers, and prostitution making large cities like Buenos Aires infamous by 1914. [1] Argentina's unemployment also rose, further increasing poverty rates. It is estimated that 73% of the inmates in the Buenos Aires beggars' asylum were foreigners. [6]
Cultural
The mass amount of immigration in Argentina created a melting pot for many different cultures. The mix of European and Native cultures led to a new mestizo culture and a "formation of an identity that was not European nor indigenous." [12] The Italian immigrants brought new cultural touchstones such as the Italian language, hand gestures, and different foods to Argentina. In addition, many communities like the Jewish, German, and Welsh communities also kept some traditional cultural elements while mixing in with the native population along with the Spanish and Italian cultures. [12]
While political elites had favored and fostered European immigration, these immigrants created new political demands among the polity that were not so aligned with the ideas of those in power. [7] A diversity of cultural ideals, a growing middle class, and activism of immigrants who had fled their home country because of their political beliefs created a rich union, socialist, and anarchist presence in Argentina, particularly in Buenos Aires. [14] By 1901, movements fueled by Spanish, Italian, and French immigrants had organized and were enacting labor strikes and protests against the government. [15] In response, the government began deporting immigrants that they felt threatened their institutions, whether they were criminals or political agitators, via a new Residency Law. [14] Italians, Spaniards, and Jewish Argentines in particular were targets of prejudice and back lash, being targeted by policing in urban areas due to assumed criminality. [8] The turn of the century saw increased regulation of immigration, a political response to racial and social questions posed by an influx of Europeans. [8]
One reason European immigration slowed during the early 20th century was because Argentine elites began to criticize the nation's unrestricted European migration. [13] Elitist-owned newspapers created anti-immigration propaganda to discourage migration with the hopes of also decreasing crime and unemployment. [13] Newspapers often contained descriptions that "stereotyped the typical anarchist as a fat, swarthy, and ugly Italian or Spaniard bristling with knives, bombs, and other lethal weapons." [13] Increased deportations began in conjunction to shifting attitudes. [13] These measures, coupled with the onset of World War I, made it more difficult for European immigrants to find a home in Argentina. [3]
This is a demography of Argentina including population density, ethnicity, economic status and other aspects of the population.
The Southern Cone is a geographical and cultural subregion composed of the southernmost areas of South America, mostly south of the Tropic of Capricorn. Traditionally, it covers Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the east by the Atlantic Ocean. In terms of social, economic and political geography, the Southern Cone comprises Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, and sometimes includes Brazil's four southernmost states. In its broadest definition, taking into account common history and geography, it also includes Paraguay, another Spanish-speaking country.
Immigration to Argentina began in several millennia BCE with the arrival of different populations from Asia to the Americas through Beringia, according to the most accepted theories, and were slowly populating the Americas. Upon arrival of the Spaniards, the native inhabitants of Argentine territory were approximately 300,000 people belonging to many Indigenous American civilizations, cultures, and tribes.
Tango, a distinctive tango dance and the corresponding musical style of tango music, began in the working-class port neighborhoods of Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Montevideo (Uruguay); on both sides of the Rio de la Plata.
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents. Commuters, tourists, and other short-term stays in a destination country do not fall under the definition of immigration or migration; seasonal labour immigration is sometimes included, however.
Immigration to Mexico has been important in shaping the country's demographics. Since the early 16th century, with the arrival of the Spanish, Mexico has received immigrants from Europe, Africa, the Americas, and Asia. Today, millions of their descendants still live in Mexico and can be found working in different professions and industries.
Irish Argentines are Argentine citizens who are fully or partially of Irish descent. Irish emigrants from the Midlands, Wexford and many counties of Ireland arrived in Argentina mainly from 1830 to 1930, with the largest wave taking place in 1850–1870. The modern Irish-Argentine community is composed of some of their descendants, and the total number is estimated at between 500,000 and 1,000,000.
Argentina has a racially and ethnically diverse population. The territory of what today is Argentina was first inhabited by numerous indigenous peoples. The first white settlers came during the period of Spanish colonization, beginning in the 16th century. The Spaniards imported African slaves, who would go on to become the first Afro-Argentines. Following independence from Spain in the 19th century and well into the 20th century, numerous migration waves took place, with Argentina being the second most popular destination for migrants in the early 20th century, after the United States. Most of these migrants came from Europe.
Spanish settlement in Argentina, that is the arrival of Spanish emigrants in Argentina, took place first in the period before Argentina's independence from Spain, and again in large numbers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Between the 15th and 19th centuries, the Spanish Empire was the sole colonial power in the territories that became Argentina after the 1816 Argentine declaration of independence. Thus, before 1850, the vast majority of European settlers in Argentina were from Spain and they carried the Spanish colonial administration, including religious affairs, government, and commercial business. A substantial Spanish descended Criollo population gradually built up in the new cities, while some mixed with the indigenous populations (Mestizos), with the Black African-descended slave population (Mulattoes) or with other European immigrants.
The history of the Jews in Argentina goes back to the early sixteenth century, following the Jewish expulsion from Spain. Sephardi Jews fleeing persecution immigrated with explorers and colonists to settle in what is now Argentina, in spite of being forbidden from travelling to the American colonies. In addition, many of the Portuguese traders in the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata were Jewish. An organized Jewish community, however, did not develop until after Argentina gained independence from Spain in 1816. By mid-century, Jews from France and other parts of Western Europe, fleeing the social and economic disruptions of revolutions, began to settle in Argentina.
German Argentines are Argentines of German ancestry as well as German citizens living in Argentina. They are descendants of Germans who immigrated to Argentina from Germany and elsewhere in Europe. Some German Argentines originally settled in Brazil, then later immigrated to Argentina. Although Germany as a political entity was founded in 1871, the German language and culture have traditionally been more important than the country of origin, as the basis of the ethnic and national consciousness of Germans. Today, German Argentines make up the fifth-largest ethnic group in Argentina, with over two million citizens of Volga German descent alone.
Afro-Argentines are people in Argentina of primarily Sub-Saharan African descent. The Afro-Argentine population is the result of people being brought over during the transatlantic slave trade during the centuries of Spanish domination in the region and immigration from Africa.
Italian Argentines are Argentine-born citizens who are fully or partially of Italian descent, whose ancestors were Italians who emigrated to Argentina during the Italian diaspora, or Italian-born people in Argentina.
French Argentines refers to Argentine citizens of full or partial French ancestry or persons born in France who reside in Argentina. French Argentines form one of the largest ancestry groups after Italian Argentines and Spanish Argentines. Between 1857 and 1946, 261,020 French people immigrated to Argentina. Besides immigration from continental France, Argentina also received, as early as the 1840s, immigrants with French background from neighboring countries, notably Uruguay, which expanded the French Argentine community. In 2006, it was estimated that around 6 million Argentines had some degree of French ancestry, up to 17% of the total population.
Argentines are the people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, several of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being Argentine. In the past the National Gentilic for Citizens of Argentina was mistakenly translated as Argentinians, a term that is no longer considered accurate.
European Argentines belong to several communities which trace their origins to various migrations from Europe and which have contributed to the country's cultural and demographic variety. They are the descendants of colonists from Spain during the colonial period prior to 1810, or in the majority of cases, of Spanish, Italians, French, Russians and other Europeans who arrived in the great immigration wave from the mid 19th to the mid 20th centuries, and who largely intermarried among their many nationalities during and after this wave. No recent Argentine census has included comprehensive questions on ethnicity, although numerous studies have determined that European Argentinians have been a majority in the country since 1914.
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The history of the Jews in Paraguay has been characterised by migration of Jewish people, mainly from European countries, to the South American nation, and has resulted in the Jewish Paraguayan community numbering 1,000 today.
The early 20th century marked a large period of immigration for Argentina. Prostitution became legalized in 1875. Moreover, due to the Great Depression, another large wave of European immigrants came to Buenos Aires looking for better job opportunities. However, there were cases about women who were tricked into coming to Argentina with the promise of a husband and better life, which turned out to be a pimp for brothels called bordellos.
European immigration to the Americas was one of the largest migratory movements in human history. Between the years 1492 and 1930, more than 60 million Europeans immigrated to the American continent. Between 1492 and 1820, approximately 2.6 million Europeans immigrated to the Americas, of whom just under 50% were British, 40% were Spanish or Portuguese, 6% were Swiss or German, and 5% were French.