Great European immigration wave to Argentina

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]

Busload of Immigrants, Buenos Aires

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 - 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 1870-1914, 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]