‘We Have Always Lived Here’: Indigenous Movements, Citizenship and Poverty in Argentina

Abstract

This article explores the nexus between indigenous mobilisation, citizenship, and poverty in Argentina. A subnational comparison of land struggles among the Diaguita Calchaquí in Tucumán and the Mbya Guaraní in Misiones shows that changing global and national opportunity structures, most prominently a new multicultural citizenship regime, set the stage for indigenous mobilisation. In turn, local transformations of capitalist development motivate indigenous mobilising efforts, whereas leadership patterns and state–movement relations shape the capacity to mobilise. Diaguita and Mbya mobilisation reveals that indigenous movements play a central role in the activation of formal citizenship rights and the contestation of dominant notions of poverty. At the same time, the current design of multicultural citizenship and the adverse socioeconomic incorporation of indigenous communities also counteract indigenous mobilising efforts in Argentina.