Making Immigrants in Modern Argentina by Julia Albarracín

Author:Julia Albarracín
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
Published: 2020-05-08T00:00:00+00:00

The article entitled “Terrifying Numbers” appeared in La Nación on April 21, 1994. This editorial was written by Amílcar Argüelles, a former health minister from the military dictatorship, and offered some thoughts about Argentine health issues. Argüelles begins by stating that two-thirds of public hospitals’ budgets are spent on Latin American immigrants. Public hospitals in Argentina are free and open to anyone, but because employers are obligated by law to provide health insurance, people who are employed can access private health services. For the most part, those working in the informal economy and the unemployed are the main users of public health. Despite this, it is hard to believe this figure.

Referring to the increase in disease and cases of Chagas, meningitis, tuberculosis, and cholera in Argentina, Argüelles writes in his editorial, “This alarming increase in deaths is related to the arrival of illegal immigrants in the country, who live ‘herded’ and promiscuously in the periphery of Buenos Aires, other cities, and rural areas.” He continues,“Even if for humanitarian reasons we wanted to keep accepting this ignorant and poor population, our resources would not allow it, and if we don’t stop it we will be divided into two countries: one developed and the other one from the Third or Fourth World.” He then adds that the 1994 rebellion against the North American Free Trade Agreement in Chiapas, Mexico, should teach readers a lesson about what could happen in Argentina.

The ensuing paragraphs of the editorial become even more stereotypical and racist. For example, Argüelles asserts, “The number of births among immigrant families, of lower intellectual capacity, will lead to a noticeable decrease in the average intellectual capacity of our population.” After rallying for an immigration policy for immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe, and France, as well as white South Africans “fearful of the reaction by the African population,” to populate Patagonia and other rural areas, he concludes, “Postponing these actions will put our national sovereignty at risk and will bring a monstrous growth of contaminated Third World neighborhoods, populated with retarded people, which will hurt our national intellectual capacity and the development and competitiveness of the country in the 21st century.” As these statements show, the author of this editorial had a clear preference for white immigrants and was willing to support his position with any kind of unfounded statement.

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