Total population | |
---|---|
700,000 [1] 2.5% of Argentina's population | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Buenos Aires, Misiones Province, Córdoba Province, Santa Fe Province | |
Languages | |
Predominantly in Spanish, Polish | |
Religion | |
Roman Catholicism | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Poles, Polish Brazilian, Polish Jews, Polish American, Polish Canadians |
Polish Argentines (Spanish : polaco-argentinos) are Argentine citizens of full or partial Polish ancestry or Poland-born people who reside in Argentina. Poland was the fourth largest net migrants contributor after Italy, Spain and Germany. Although it is hard to give an exact number of Polish immigrants to Argentina, as those who immigrated before 1919 carried German, Austrian or Russian passports, it is estimated that between 1921 and 1976, 169,335 Poles permanently settled in the country. [2] Today there are 500,000 Argentines of Polish descent. [3] [4] The Polish minority in Argentina is both one of the most significant minorities in Argentina and one of the largest groups of Polish minority.
It is not easy to determine the number of Poles who immigrated to Argentina. Before 1919, they were registered as Germans, Austrians, or Russians. Polish immigrants to Argentina were made up of three distinct groups: the Catholic ethnic Poles (25%), the Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Ruthenians (45-50%) and the Polish Jews (25-30%). Between 1921 and 1976, 169,335 immigrants from Poland permanently settled in Argentina.
The first Poles arrived in Argentina during the 19th century. In 1890, the first Polish organization in Argentina was founded (Towarzystwo Polskie). For many years, the Misiones Province was the major Polish center in Argentina. [5]
Today it is estimated that between 500,000 and 1 million Argentines have Polish ancestry. Over a quarter of Misiones population has Polish roots (250,000 persons), [6] the highest concentration of Polish Argentines in the country. About 140,000 Poles live in Buenos Aires; other Argentine cities with large Polish populations include Córdoba, Rosario and Santa Fe. [7]
A major organization of the Polish minority is the Polish Association in Argentina (Związek Polaków w Argentynie).
In 1995 the Argentine National Congress made June 8 Polish Settlers' Day. [8]
See alsoRelated Research ArticlesThe German minority population in Russia, Ukraine and the Soviet Union stemmed from several sources and arrived in several waves. Since the second half of the 19th century, as a consequence of the Russification policies and compulsory military service in the Russian Empire, large groups of Germans from Russia emigrated to the Americas, where they founded many towns. In 1914, an estimate put the remaining number of ethnic Germans living in the Russian Empire at 2,416,290. During Stalin's dictatorship, ethnic German families were decimated and deported to gulag concentration camps located in Siberia and other parts of Central Asia, leading to the genocide of Germans from Russia. In 1989, the Soviet Union declared to have an ethnic German population of roughly 2 million. By 2002, following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, many ethnic Germans had emigrated and the population fell by half to roughly 1 million. 597,212 Germans self-identified as such in the 2002 Russian census, making Germans the fifth-largest ethnic group in the Russian Federation. There were 353,441 Germans in Kazakhstan and 21,472 in Kyrgyzstan (1999); while 33,300 Germans lived in Ukraine. The German diaspora consists of German people and their descendants who live outside of Germany. The term is used in particular to refer to the aspects of migration of German speakers from central Europe to different countries around the world. This definition describes the "German" term as a sociolinguistic group as opposed to the national one since the emigrant groups came from different regions with diverse cultural practices and different varieties of German. For instance, the Alsatians and Hessians were simply called Germans once they set foot in their new homelands. Poles, or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Central Europe. The preamble to the Constitution of the Republic of Poland defines the Polish nation as comprising all the citizens of Poland, regardless of heritage or ethnicity. The majority of Poles adhere to Roman Catholicism. Polish Americans are Americans who either have total or partial Polish ancestry, or are citizens of the Republic of Poland. There are an estimated 9.15 million self-identified Polish Americans, representing about 2.83% of the U.S. population. Polish Americans are the second-largest Central European ethnic group after German Americans, and the eighth largest ethnic group overall in the United States. According to the 2011 census, 2,543 Poles live in Romania, mainly in the villages of Suceava County. There are three exclusively Polish villages: Nowy Sołoniec, Plesza (Pleșa) and Pojana Mikuli, as well a significant Polish presence in Kaczyca (Cacica) and Paltynosa (Păltinoasa). Poles in Romania form an officially recognised national minority, having one seat in the Chamber of Deputies of Romania and access to Polish elementary schools and cultural centres. The Polish diaspora comprises Poles and people of Polish heritage or origin who live outside Poland. The Polish diaspora is also known in modern Polish as Polonia, the name for Poland in Latin and many Romance languages. This article details the geographical distribution of speakers of the German language, regardless of the legislative status within the countries where it is spoken. In addition to the German-speaking area in Europe, German-speaking minorities are present in many countries and on all six inhabited continents. 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. Polish Brazilians refers to Brazilians of full or partial Polish ancestry who are aware of such ancestry and remain connected, to some degree, to Polish culture, or Polish-born people permanently residing in Brazil. Also, a Polish Brazilian may have one Polish parent. In 2021 the number of people of Polish origin in Brazil is estimated at even 5 million The ethnography of Argentina makes this country, along with other areas of relatively modern settlement like United States, Canada, Brazil, Australia or Uruguay, a crisol de razas, or a melting pot of different peoples. In fact, immigration to Argentina was so strong that it eventually became the country with the second highest number of immigrants, with 6.6 million, second only to the United States with 27 million, and ahead of such other immigratory receptors such as Canada, Brazil and Australia. The Polish minority in the Czech Republic is a Polish national minority living mainly in the Zaolzie region of western Cieszyn Silesia. The Polish community is the only national minority in the Czech Republic that is linked to a specific geographical area. Zaolzie is located in the north-eastern part of the country. It comprises Karviná District and the eastern part of Frýdek-Místek District. Many Poles living in other regions of the Czech Republic have roots in Zaolzie as well. Ukrainian Argentines are Argentine citizens of Ukrainian descent or Ukraine-born people who reside in Argentina. Ukrainian Argentines are an ethnic minority in Argentina; although the Argentine census does not provide data on ethnic origins, estimates of the Ukrainian population range from 305,000. Many Ukrainian Argentines are of Jewish descent. Currently, the main concentrations of Ukrainians in Argentina are in the Greater Buenos Aires area, with at least 100,000 people of Ukrainian descent, the province of Misiones, with at least 55,000 Ukrainians, and the province of Chaco with at least 30,000 Ukrainians. In Misiones Province Ukrainians constitute approximately 9% of the province's total population. In comparison to Ukrainians in North America, the Ukrainian community in Argentina tends to be more descended from earlier waves of immigration, is poorer, more rural, has less organizational strength, and is more focused on the Church as the center of cultural identity. Most Ukrainian Argentines do not speak the Ukrainian language and have switched to Spanish, although they continue to maintain their ethnic identity. 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 fourth-largest ethnic group in Argentina, with over two million of citizens of Volga German descent alone. The population of post-World War II Poland became nearly completely ethnically homogeneous as a result of the German-Nazi Holocaust, the radically altered borders, and the deportations ordered by the Soviet authorities, who wished to remove the sizeable Polish minorities from the Baltics (Lithuania) and Eastern Europe. The Belarusian diaspora refers to emigrants from the territory of Belarus as well as to their descendants. 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. Belarusian Australians refers to Australians of full or partial Belarusian national background or descent, or Belarusian citizens living in Australia. A Polish Uruguayan is a Uruguayan citizen of full or partial Polish ancestry. A Polish Paraguayan is a Paraguayan-born person of full or partial Polish ancestry or a Polish-born citizen who resides in Paraguay. The peak of Polish immigration to Paraguay began during the 20th century, particularly after World War II when millions of Poles left their country and chose different countries where they could find a better quality of life. In South America, Paraguay was one of the main destinations. Polish Colombians are Colombian citizens of full or partial Polish ancestry, or Polish-born person residing in Colombia. Most of the Polish immigrants that fled from the Holocaust to Colombia were Polish Jews. References
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