Race/Ethnicity | Displace

ETHNIC GROUPS

Argentina

Argentines often call their country “cresol de razas” (mix of races). Between 18th and 19th century, Argentina received more than 6.6 millions immigrants which helped the country's population double every 20 year, second only to the USA.

After military campaigns all but eliminated Native American settlements (especially in the southern and center regions), Argentina began to grow rapidly as a result of European immigration.

1530 - 1810

- 16th century : Spanish colonization of the River Plate coast and inland areas begins

- 1776 : Spain established separate Viceroyalty of the River Plate

- 1810 : Independence declared, followed by decades of turmoil, attempted foreign intervention, and civil war between centralist and federalist forces

- Before the 1850’s : less than 5,000 immigrants per year in Argentina

CIVIL WARS – 1816-1861

During the American Civil War, immigration increased in tempo in Argentina :

1880-85 -> 200 000 arrival

1885-1890 -> 670 000 arrivals

- 1869 : 12,1% of the population were foreigners

- After 1889 : more than 200,000 immigrants per year

- 1895 : only about 8% of the immigrant population were landowners

“European immigrants to Argentina were thus welcomed as farmers, but found themselves increasingly enjoined from landowners”

1861-1929 (with the Four seasons of democracy in 1890-1930)

Immigrants went down to Argentinian part by deliberate government programs

- 1862 : Congress authorised the contracting of immigrants for colonisation ventures (for example, in 1865, there was a small Welsh Colony in Patagonia)

- 1869 : in Buenos Aires -> immigration bureau (Comisión Central de Inmigración)

1876 : practice of appointing agents in Europe to recruit

settlers

Later : harvest workers from Europe received free rail

transportation to different zones of the country

- Between 1860-1910 : more than 6 million foreigners travelled to Argentina and more than the half stayed in the country to work and settle

In northern provinces :

Formosa -> 70% of the population born in Paraguay

Misiones -> 40% of the population Brazilians or

Paraguayans

80% of the Argentina’s immigrants are Mediterranean (half were Italians, ¼ Spaniards and the rest were French, Russian, Ottoman or Portuguese)

- 1890 : net annual immigration = 50,000 immigrants

- Peak in 1904 : more than 100,000 immigrants per year for ten years

1/3 of the county population = foreign-born

80% are immigrants or immigrants since 1850

descendants

About 1 million Italians, 800,000 Spaniards, 94,000

Russians, 86,000 French, 80,000 Ottomans Turks

(Lebanese and Syrians)

- 1914 : more than 30% of the population are foreign-born

70% of those immigrants settled in the Federal Capital,

Greater Buenos Aires or in the districts of the Pampa (for

ranching or farming)

+ 1 million inhabitants in the country since 1895

PERONISM – 1930-1976 and THE DIRTY WAR – 1976-1983

- 1930 : cessation of immigration, because of the conservatives politics

- 1947 : Foreign born went from 40% in 1930 to 26%

- After 1950 : European immigration was negligeable (< 10% of foreign born in 1970)

Been replaced by immigrants from the neighbored countries

TODAY

According to the 2010 census

- People of indigenous or native descent : 955k people (2,38%)

- People of African descent : 149k people (0,37%) including :

Argentine : 137,5k

Born outside Argentina but within the American continent : 10,2k

African : 1k

European : 601

Asian : 167

The indigenous people : based on a survey in 2004-2005

Ona : 696
Pampa : 1.585
Pilagá : 4.465
Quechua : 6.739
Querandí : 736
Rankulche : 10.149
Sanavirón : 563
Tapiete : 524
Tehuelche : 10.590
Toba : 69.452
Tonocoté : 4.779
Tupí guaraní : 16.365
Wichí : 40.036
Other declared people : 3.864
Unspecified people : 92.876
Unanswered : 9.371

Atacama : 3.044
Ava guaraní : 21.807
Aymara : 4.104
Chané : 4.376
Charrúa : 4.511
Chorote : 2.613
Chulupí : 553
Comechingón : 10.863
Diaguita/diaguita calchaquí : 31.753
Guaraní : 22.059
Huarpe : 14.633
Kolla : 70.505
Lule : 854
Mapuche : 113.680
Mbyá guaraní : 8.223
Mocoví : 15.837
Omaguaca : 1.553

The European descendant groups :

Italian : 55%

Spanish : 20%

French : 17%

German : 8%

97% of the population in 2014 identify themselves white

The remainder is Amerindian, Mestizos or non-white

Argentina today has a large Arab population, most of whom are from Syria and Lebanon. There are also about 180,000 Asian people, mostly of Chinese and Korean origins. Additionally, the Argentine government estimates there are 750,000 residents without official documents, many of whom immigrated from Paraguay, Peru and Bolivia.

Argentinian ethnic composition

TO SUM UP

18th century

19th century

20th century

21st century

Before the 19th century : immigration movement into Argentina mainly consisted of men, and a large majority being Spaniards who coexisted with the indigenous peoples present in places such as the Guaycurúes and Wichis in the Chaco region; the Huarpes in Cuyo and north of the province of Neuquén; the Ranqueles east of Cuyo and north of the Pampas; the Tehuelches in the Pampas and Patagonia, or the Onas and Yámanas in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago. Added to this is the arrival of Black Africans through enslavment, with most being trafficked from Angola. The arrival of Africans is significant as some studies claim that about 5% of the Argentine population descended from through these heritages.

04.09.1812 : the First Triumvirat provided protection to all those wishing to settle on Argentine soil

1853 : devotes Article 25 in its Constitution to its status as a host land "El gobierno federal fomentará la inmigración europea y no podrá restringir, limitar ni gravar con impuesto alguno la entrada en el territorio argentino de los extranjeros que traigan por objeto labrar la tierra, mejorar las industrias e introducir y enseñar las ciencias y las artes"

1895 census : 34% of the population are foreigners

Most of them are Italians, Spaniards, French, British people but also Russians, Germans, Polish and Jewish people

1914 censury : 43% of the population are foreigners

After the WW2 : immigrants from Asia, called the Chinos, come mostly from Korea, China and Japan

Also, Turkish, Syrians and
Lebanese people are part of this wave of immigration

Since the second half of the 20th century : the new immigration is mainly latino-american immigration, from the neighbouring countries

Argentinean immigration is mostly composed by Bolivian, Paraguyan, Peruvian and Chilean people

They are attracted to a richer neighbouring country but for the first time it is not a will of the state

BUENOS AIRES

Current population

15,153,729 (2020)

Population Density 137k people/km2 2,4kpeople/km2

(in suburbs)

Largest Jewish community in Latin America

Gained autonomy in 1994

Racial Composition

The racial composition of Buenos Aires is :

- 88,9% of White people

- 7% of Mestizo people

- 2,1% of Asian people

- 2% of Black people

Buenos Aires locals are referred to as Porteños (“people of the port”) because so many of the city’s inhabitants historically arrived by boat from Europe. The population is made up largely of the descendants of immigrants from Spain and Italy who came to Argentina in the late 19th or early 20th century

Since the 1930s, most newcomers to the city have come from northern Argentina, where the population is predominantly Mestizo (people of mixed Indian and European ancestry), and from neighbouring Bolivia and Paraguay.

Mestizos make up a little over 1/3 of the population in the metropolitan area. It is mostly mestizos who live in the poorer sections of the city, in the shantytowns, and in the suburbs.

16th- 18th Century

Jewish immigration to Argentina from Europe began in the 16th century up until 18th century with secret Jews, coming to Argentina to escape the Spanish Inquisition.

A second, larger wave of Jewish immigration from France happened in the 19th century, followed by Russia, whose Jewish immigrants became known as “Rusos” in Argentina.

Towards the end of the 19th century – when Argentina had been declared a republic and the state was operating an open-door policy to people from Europe to populate the nascent country – a lot of Jewish immigrants moved to Argentina.

However, many were disappointed to find the fertile lands promised to them for agriculture on arrival were not as they had hoped. They ventured north and south in search of somewhere to settle, and over the coming years Jewish agricultural settlements were established in Santa Fe, Buenos Aires and Entre Rios.

1530- 1810

The Spaniards found it difficult to subjugate the locals and so they resulted to imports of slaves legally and illegally.

In 1587, the first slaves arrived in Buenos Aires from Brazil, 1580–1640, the main commercial activity for Buenos Aires was the slave trade as more than 70% of the imports arriving in Buenos Aires were enslaved Africans coming from Brazil via the Portuguese slave trade from West Africa.

Once arriving in Buenos Aires, they are moved to Cordoba which functioned as the main redistribution centre for this slave transfer until 1610. They are then sent as far as Lima, Peru, Mendoza, Tucuman, Salta, Jujuy, Chile, Bolivia and Southern Peru.

By late 1700’s 30 to 40% of the population of Buenos Aires were black or mixed

134754_indigenous_people_demonstrate_in_

According to the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Database, 63,845 slaves disembarked at the Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata between 1601-1866. Their presence was important to Buenos Aires socioeconomic power rise and it emerged as the commercial and political centre of the Platine region.

The Free Womb Act that granted freedom to children born to enslaved mothers was passed in 1813, Although, the 1853, Constitution of Argentina abolished slavery, it was not until 1861 when Buenos Aires formally joined the Confederation that the institution was fully eliminated.

The Civil Wars

In the early 19th century about one-third of the population was black, mainly living in San Telmo.

By the end of the century, black residents accounted for only a tiny percentage of Buenos Aires’s population. This was due to the following:

The war of the Triple Alliance in the 1860’s, and other 19th century wars, which killed of many Africans as they were put out on the front lines after forcefully recruiting afro-argentines into the military.

The cholera and yellow fever epidemic which eradicated a lot of Africans as they were segregated and had no adequate measures to treat or prevent the illness.

References :

INDEC – Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censo – República Argentina

INDEC - Argentina, [online], Av. Presidente Julio A. Roca 609. P.B. C1067ABB, [2020], Available on : <https://www.indec.gob.ar/>

ROCK David. , University of California Press, 1985, 478 pages

LEWIS Daniel K. , ABC-CLIO, 2014, 227 pages

BBC News – Argentina profile – Timeline

BBC News, , [online], Broadcasting House Portland Place, London, [5 November 2019], Available on : <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-18712378>

INDEC – Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censo – República Argentina

INDEC, , [online], Av. Presidente Julio A. Roca 609. P.B. C1067ABB, [2005], Available on : <https://www.indec.gob.ar/micro_sitios/webcenso/ECPI/index_ecpi.asp>

INDEC – UBA Sociales – Censo 2010

INDEC – UBA SOCIALES – CENSO 2010, «Pueblos Originarios – Región Pampeana», in Censo Nacional de Población, Hogares y Viviendas 2010. Censo del Bicentenario, Serie D N°5, p.12-31

BRITANNICA, , [online], 325 North La Salle Street, Suite 200, Chicago, IL 60654-2682, United States, [26 October 2020], Available on : <https://www.britannica.com/place/Argentina>