How Can We Account for the Dramatic Shift in Attitudes towards Immigration on Argentina 1860-1914 - Term Paper Example

How can we account for the dramatic shift in attitudes towards immigration in Argentina between 1860 and 1914? Introduction: In the second half of the 19th century, the world witnessed a trend of flooding immigration of the Europeans in the Latin American countries, especially Argentina. Baily (2004: 45-47) proved the fact that groups of people from Europe, having different levels of skill and work experience, with different expectations gradually made their voyage towards Argentina and settled there. This immigration in Argentina enabled it to accelerate economic growth. However, at the dawn of the 20th century, especially at the period just before the World War I a shift in the attitude of the Argentines towards the European immigration was unraveled. Many of the Latin American countries including Argentina displayed a negative repercussion towards the European immigrants.  A thorough scrutiny of the case of Argentina on the socioeconomic and socio-cultural perspectives would enable us to point out the main causes of such a radical change in the posture. From 1868-1914: The Analysis Though the liberal economic policy of the Argentine government is believed to be orchestrated mainly by the-then Argentine President Sarmiento, according to De Avila (1964:118) the laws had already been established for immigration. This postulate was supported by Vogel (1991: 128-129), who argued that the supremacy of Sarmiento lies in his attitude to promote immigration, which was initiated by his predecessors.  Whitaker (1964: 55)marks Sarmiento as a real leader to pave the economic and cultural development in America through a change in the socio-political orientation of the country. The progressive leaders of the Argentina in the 19th century pleaded for the migration as the economy had a huge arable land with the scarcity of labor to utilize efficiently. The progressive leaders realized that purpose of economic growth by the intensive utilization of the natural resources would be practically impossible without the import of laborers from different corners of the globe. However, the plan of immigration was designed to serve quantitative as well as qualitative purpose as the Argentine population had the urge to replace the monotonous Spaniard culture by a homogeneous European culture. Domingo F Sarmiento (2004:9-10) expressed his belief on the European immigration as a catalyst to promote moralization and order and to accelerate the tempo of economic growth in Argentina in his famous book Facundo.  Delaney (2002: 436) supported the argument of the Sarmiento on the basis of the fact that attracting European immigrants was synonymous to importing the European sophistication. The opposition leader of the Sarmiento government, Juan Bautista Alberdi was also a supporter of immigration for the protection of national boundary of Argentina and the exploitation of the natural resources, collection of public revenue in form of tax and above all the cultural rectification of Hispanic America. The main essence of the opinions of Alberdi and Sarmiento was the introduction of British liberty, French culture and European values. However, that logic also faced criticism. According to the view of Cara-Walker (1987: 39) the essence of the criticism stressed on the fact that indiscriminate immigration without proper level of job creation and capital formation could bring about social and economic disorder. The matter of fact is that the labor market theories of economics depicts that an immigration of foreign population in the labor market creates excess supply which could be reflected through either a decline in the wage rate and consequent deterioration in the standard of living or an unemployment situation. Both would cause the crime rate and social disorder in the economy. The finding of Shiffen (1950: 48) unskilled workforce from the lower strata of European society immigrated towards Argentina and they gradually adopted themselves with the economic affairs of this country. Klein (1983: 307-308) also supported the view that the blue-collar workers constituted the major part as the skilled chose America. Scobie (1971: 33) supported the view and argued that the unskilled workers chose the coastal cities of Argentina and chose the manual jobs. Baily (1983:281) supported the view that the immigrants were welcome in this land and that is the evidence of argentine attitude towards immigration. The immigration started to gain its momentum in Argentina; within the time period 1869 to 1887, the immigrant population in the Buenos Aires was doubled within the next 17 years. This rapid growth of the immigrant population was initially attributable to more and more immigration because of the positive attitude of the then argentine government. The argentine liberal policy of immigration was the major factor behind the major influx.  Over time the non-Argentine population merged themselves with the native counterpart and the marital relationship also played a role in this diffusion. (Baily, 1980: 33-34) All the writings of the above writers prove the positive attitude of Argentina towards the immigration of the European people towards Argentina. The main cause of this attitude was economic as well as cultural. The preachers of liberal immigration policy stressed on the benefits of European immigration mainly to solve the problems of scarcity of workers and the backwardness in culture which was mainly attributable to history of Spanish colonization. The-then Europe was famous for technological advancement, skill and culture. By inviting immigration the argentine government sought to import the sophisticated technology and skill and the improved homogeneous culture. The scenario was totally different in Argentina in the first two decades of the 20th century. There was a paradigm shift in the policy of many Latin American countries regarding the immigration of Europeans. It could be termed as a one eighty-degree change in the attitude towards immigration in Argentina. According to Delaney (1996: 633) there had been a widespread tendency towards the emergence of a pro-guacho anti immigrant attitude among the argentine population.  Not only in Argentina, the majority of the Latin American countries turned their faces from immigration and the governments had introduced some tight immigration policies. Zimmerman (1992: 36-37) made his effort to seek the major cause of this shift in the attitude. The main objective was to find out the factors that were accountable for the replacement of a liberal attitude towards migration by some tight and restrictive policy towards the inflow of human beings. In his investigation of the factors responsible for the attitude change revealed the fact that though there had been huge development in the argentine economy in the last half of the 19th century some negative facts were also present in the entire scenario. Zimmerman pointed out on the dichotomization as a consequence of the massive immigration of Europeans causing geographical and economic dualism between the urban and rural Argentina. The matter of fact is that the European immigrants had thrown tough competition for the argentine workers by the lower wage they used to charge. Consequence was the job loss by the native argentine people and their overcrowding in rural agricultural sector. That replacement of native urban population by the European immigrants set a threat towards the native argentines regarding the existence of their society and culture and that brought about racist movement in Argentina. It compelled the government to think of a shift in the attitude towards European immigration.  Solberg (1981: 215) also supported Zimmerman’s viewpoint and expressed the image of European immigration and cultural aggression as a threat towards the argentine people as a demon that could destroy the traditional argentine culture. Their postulates express the real scenario because the gradual expansion of European culture gradually became suppressive towards the traditional and social culture. That raised the question of the reliability of the thesis that had supported the inflow of a homogeneous culture during the last half of the 19th century, especially at the period of the regime of Sarmiento. The matter of fact is that the gradual expansion of immigrants in Argentina and the expansion of their activities and influence in the market, economy and society gradually strengthened their position and power in the argentine society, especially in the urban societies. Over time they started to enjoy the status of superiors and the native Argentines as the inferior. From all these factors racist movement and unrest stemmed up in Argentina. The industrial and urban control was gradually accumulated towards the hand of the immigrants. All the factors were mainly responsible for the paradigm shift. Actually the social scientists marked immigration as the root of many problems such as poverty, crimes, labor unrest and some anarchist activities. The elite class of Argentina and conceptualized the negative change in the social structure due to rapid reshaping of the socioeconomic structure of the nation. Conclusion In the year 1845 Argentina remained a desert despite having enough arable land just due to lack of people to use it. The scenario changed over the 59 years and the population was seen to be four fold in Argentina. According to Solberg (1969:216) Argentina became a major exporter of agrarian products for which the main contributory factor was the participation of the Europeans in the work force of the country. This justified the attitude of the Sarmiento towards the European immigration. The main consequence was hardcore economic but it was diffused enough over the society surpassing the boundary of sheer economics. Gradually the inflow of immigrants was followed by many types of problems such as overcrowding and decline in wage rate, monopolization of market causing the problem of unemployment and hence poverty among the native argentine people. Immediately, the joblessness and the lack of social security were reflected through crime and social unrest and many evils faced by the country. (If we find the total history we can argue that the immigration policies of Argentina were framed with an objective to attract the fortune seekers mainly from Europe to import skill culture and efficiency. Over time it was found that the native people were getting oppressed and the native culture was getting submerged. The set of all these socio-cultural and socioeconomic facts were responsible for the change in paradigm in the early 20th century.   References: 1. Baily, S. (1980). ‘Marriage Patterns and Immigrant Assimilation in Buenos Aires, 1882-1923’. Hispanic American Historical Review 60:1. 32-48 2. Baily, S. (1983). ‘The Adjustment of Italian Immigrants in Buenos Aires and New York, 1870-1914’, The American Historical Review 88:2. 281-305 3. Baily, S. (1999). Immigrants in the Land of Promise: Italians in Buenos Aires, 1870-1914. London: Cornell University Press. 4. Barr Mele, P. (1998). Cowboys and constructions: National representations of pastoral life in port-Portalian Chile. Journal of Latin American Studies, 30, 35-61. 5. Cara-Walker, A. (1987). ‘Cocoliche: The Art of Assimilation Dissimulation among Italians and Argentines’. Latin American Research Review 22:3.37-67 6. DeAvila, F B. 1964.  Immigration in Latin America. Washington: Pan American Union 7. Delaney, J. (1996). Making sense of modernity: Changing attitudes towards the immigrant and the gaucho in turn-of-the-century Argentina. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 38 (3), 434-459 8. Delaney, J. (2002). Imagining El Ser Argentino: Cultural Nationalism and Romantic Concepts of Nationhood In Early Twentieth-Century Argentina, Journal of Latin American Studies, 34: 3, 625-658. 9. Klein, H. (1983). ‘The Integration of Italian Immigrants into the United States and Argentina: A Comparative Analysis’. The American Historical Review, 88:2, 306-29. 10. Sarmiento, D.F., Ross,K. and R. G. Echevarría, (2004). Facundo: civilization and barbarism: the first complete English translation, California: University of California Press 11. Scobie, J. R. (1971) Argentina, a city and a nation. New York: Oxford University Press 12. Shiffen, K. (1950) Passage to America. New York: Harper & Brothers 13. Solberg, C. (1969). ‘Immigration & Urban Social Problems in Argentina & Chile, 1890-1914’. The Hispanic American Historical Review, 49:2, 215-232 14. Solberg, C. (1981). Immigration & Nationalism: Argentina and Chile, 1890-1914. Austin & London: University of Texas Press. 15. Vogel, H. (1991). ‘New Citizens for a New Nation: Naturalisation in Early Independent Argentina’, Hispanic American Historical Review 71:1. 107-131 16. Whitaker, Ar P. (1964). Argentina. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc 17. Zimmerman E.A. (1992). ‘Racial Ideas & Social Reform: Argentina, 1890-1916’. The Hispanic American Historical Review, 72:1, 23-46   Read More