A report on Immigration to Argentina

This is because since the 19th century, the city, and the country in general, has been a major recipient of millions of immigrants from all over the world, making it a melting pot where several ethnic groups live together.

The country thereafter enjoyed relative peace and stability, with several waves of European immigration, mainly Italians and Spaniards, radically reshaping its cultural and demographic outlook; over 60% of the population has full or partial Italian ancestry, and Argentine culture has significant connections to Italian culture.

During the last 15 years of the 19th century, the city more than doubled its population, in part due to immigration.

This process is associated with the European immigration who began to settle the city, generally possessing the education and enterprising capacity appropriate for the development of industry.

The political hegemony of the conservative groups was challenged by the new ideas brought by the European immigrants gave birth to the Radical Civic Union (UCR) and the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), and the creation of the Argentine Agrarian Federation.

However, this prevalence and the numerous shared cultural aspects between Argentina and Spain (the Spanish language, Roman Catholicism, Criollo/Hispanic traditions) has been mitigated by massive immigration to Argentina at the turn of the 20th century involving an overall majority of non-Spanish peoples from all over Europe.

Driven by European immigration and improved health, the province's population, like Argentina's, nearly doubled to one million by 1895 and doubled again by 1914.

The Argentine government, faced with large areas of fertile land that were unpopulated or settled by aboriginal tribes (unassimilated and considered undesirable for progress), encouraged European immigration, welcoming settling agreements with countries, regions and associations abroad.

Until the massive immigration to the region started in the 1870s, the language of the Río de la Plata had virtually no influence from other languages and varied mainly by localisms.

There were four waves of Ukrainian immigration to Argentina: pre-World War I, with about 10,000 to 14,000 immigrants, post-World War I to World War II, including approximately 50,000, post-World War II, with 5,000 immigrants, and the post-Soviet immigration, which is estimated to number approximately 4,000.