Immigration and Urban Social Problems in Argentina and Chile, 1890-1914

Abstract

A RGENTINA and Chile, which had welcomed unrestricted _t European immigration since the mid-nineteenth century, began to turn against their foreign-born residents as World War I approached. One reason behind this shift in opinion was the growing conviction among the upper classes of both nations that immigration was the principal cause of urban social problems which had begun to appear by 1890. As in the United States, Argentine and Chilean observers used immigration to explain such varied problems as pauperism, crime, labor unrest, and anarchism.' At times, the accusations which the native-born upper classes levelled against the immigrants were justified, but more often the foreigner was used as a scapegoat. The concern which the Argentine elites felt about the impact of immigration was understandable, for the newcomers were rapidly reshaping the nation's economic life and social structure. The first Argentine census, taken in 1869, revealed that only 1.8 million people inhabited the republic's huge area of about one million square miles. Argentina remained a desert, as Domingo F. Sarmiento had characterized the country in 1845.2 But by 1914 the population had increased four-fold, and Argentina had become one of the world's leading agricultural exporters. Basic to this rapid growth were the three million immigrants, primarily Italians and Spaniards, who settled in Argentina between the two censuses. On the eve of World War I, 29.9 percent of the Argentine population had been born abroad, probably the highest proportion of foreign-born residents in any large country.3