Poverty: an Integration Issue –
Part 1 – The Cases of Argentina
Finally, after a historical perspective which includes the US, the ex-USSR, Europe
and South-South America, we come to that everlasting question: Why is there poor
people? And where does poverty come from? I will have to start this by addressing
my own person story, a unique story, which has given me a unique perspective on
world events. I was born and raised in Argentina, on a 9th of June of 1980, to an
Argentinian father (a geologist) and a Norwegian mother (a housewife). Legend has
it that I was born at 3.30 am, and that there was a power cut so the elevator didn’t
function. Because of labor efforts, I developed a hernia when born and was
operated when only 1 and a half. Quickly, even from an early age, I developed a
strong will to fight. I went to catholic school from age 5 to 7, but this didn’t work
out well for me. I was asked not return the following year for bad behavior,
apparently the catholic priests didn’t like the fact that I had too many questions for
them. This is usually perceived as a lack of trust. It went well for me in my new
school, it was more liberal and not so structured, so I had no need to “rebel”.
Something distinguished me from other kids though, there was a loooot of rich
people around me. Whereas other kids had mostly “Italian” or “Spanish” families, I
was caught between two families: the “Italian” from my father’s side, and the
“Norwegian”, from my mother’s side. Now these were two very different
families… Hell, they even spoke different languages!!! Not your everyday
“argentinian story”. My grandparents from my father’s side where both 2nd
generation Italians. I never got to know my grandfather, he died at age 56 in 1975.
My grandmother though was very Italian. She swore in Italian, dressed fancy and
was very refined. She even spoke some French, since she was higher-middle class.
She would talk a lot about her ancestors and immigration while we played cards,
and was not in favour of immigration from the nearby countries, who she called
“cabecitas negras” (as in “dark heads”, a very typical racist form to address those
with indigenous background in Argentina even today). She could not believe the
economic downturn the country was going through in the 1990s, and blamed in on
“peronism”, which was more like a labour party in the beginning. She died in 2001.
From my mother’s side of the family things were different. My grandparents were
very distant, and reserved, especially my grandfather. They had a big house, several
maids, gardeners and the latest in everything: cars, colour TV, stereo, you name it.
We had a “Finnish” cleaning lady, who was born and raised in Argentina. My
grandmother described the Finns as some sort of a mix between the Scandinavians
and Russians, very honest, very hard working. Both my grandparents and MY
family went to Lutheran church every Sunday. Not my uncles or cousins though,
they weren’t very religious. My mother moved from Norway to Argentina at age
12, and then also resided in Norway for over 3 years in her 20s (the 1970s).
Whether some people might believe it or not, Argentina was actually more
developed than Norway in this period. As we have seen, there was a long period of
industrialization in Argentina from 1945 – 1975. My cousins, 3rd generation
Norwegians, are not like me. They all have argentinian mothers and 2nd generation
Norwegian parents (my uncles). I would notice this difference right away.
Argentinians were much more “street savvy” than me, I was raised in a different
manner. This led me to cultural clashes when I started working.
In 1990, thanks to a scholarship that my father was awarded, I had the possibility of
living a year in the US. I love what they called “the American system”: study hard,
work hard and it will go well for you. If you don’t, well, nobody would care.
Argentina, as a more “European country”, does not have this system. It is more
based on contacts and networking and social status, like Europe. As we have seen
before, wealthy families are established in all aspects of society, and they all know
each other. These people control the business world, corporations, and even have
influences in the government. There is really not so much possibility of social
ascension. The same situation we have in Chile, where a few rich families have
secured power.
So, let’s go back to integration. With an Argentinian father and a Scandinavian
mother, and having lived in the US, I understood many things people didn’t. One
thing is that, people are not the same, but different, culturally speaking. I mean,
people are people, that is true, I consider we are nothing more than “advanced
monkeys”, but there is a cultural impact. My mother was not like other mothers;
she was not Argentinian. And I am not like other Argentinians, being a 2nd
generation Norwegian. I am not like people born and raised in Norway either, since
I was born and raised in Argentina. I consider myself a global citizen, multicultural.
Probably the first in mankind’s history? I don’t think so.
Because of my multicultural background, I always had an ease for coming and
going in different circles. At school, I met middle and higher-middle class people. I
was actually, amongst the “poorest”. Everyone had more money than me. At work,
I met higher-middle class and rich people, all working in international companies.
Oh yes, a lot of networking for the rich people, who ALL live in the North of
Buenos Aires city, and of course, know each other. My grandfather, and my uncles,
know a lot of rich people in Argentina. They never opened any doors for me or my
brother though. We can notice there a first, distinctive difference: whereas in Italian
families you refer to the “familia unita”, in Scandinavian tradition your brother or
sister is not your family, but part of a different family. So while I was always
surrounded by rich Norwegians, my mother was considered a part of a different
family, my father’s family. Of course, I was not part of the “Norwegian family”, I
was also considered more “Italian”. In this way, the Norwegians ensured that my
mother would get less cut of the share in the inheritance. Stealing your inheritance
is very Norwegian; whereas the Italian might not pay their taxes, they would never
steal from “the family”. The Norwegians would though (1 of 4 Norwegian families
dissolve over inheritance issues), just to show you a little bit about what we call
“cultural differences”.[9]
But the most important part of this research comes next. Closed to where I lived, an
important community of South Koreans was established.[10] Now, at school, these
kids were known as “Koreans” or right away “Chinese”. They were very methodic,
studied very hard and got good grades. They practiced taekwondo, spoke Korean,
looked Korean and went to Korean protestant church. Nobody ever doubted they
were Koreans, even if they were born and raised in Argentina. And they were of
course, culturally different. South Korean migration started in the 1980s as part of an inter-exchange program, the Korean community growing to 50.000 strong. Not
satisfied with the opportunities Argentina had for these brilliant, smart people,
many moved to the US. The community is today composed by only 20.000.
Integration was never good, the Korean where never totally accepted in society.
Proof of that is that there are not so many in leading positions in big companies,
and none of them in the government.
But much worse than discrimination against Koreans in Argentina, has been racism
against Bolivians.[11][12][13] Again, due to my facility to navigate different contexts, I
found myself playing football in the park at age 27 (in 2007). I played football with
the poor people, which were mostly Bolivian, Paraguayan or Peruvian. Many were
2nd, or even 3rd generation, and of course they wore the colours of their parents’
home country. They spoke with Bolivian accent, and looked Bolivian, so of course
everyone would refer to them as Bolivians. The reason that I liked playing football
with them was that they didn’t complain so much and didn’t fight. Also, I was
allowed to play as number 10. You can see also cultural differences when playing
football. The Bolivians usually had good defense and good mid-field, but not good
offence or goalkeepers. So they didn’t mind if I played offense. “Ethnical
Argentinians”, as I like to call them (Argentinians of European ancestry), like to
fight a lot and swear a lot, losing focus on the game (maybe it’s the Italian side?).
Most of the Bolivians did not have a fixed job, and were forced to work in the
black market. Also, a housing situation occurs. In the city of Buenos Aires, in order
to rent an apartment, you need to have a job contract (white job), and a guarantor. It
is very clear that the poor people don’t have this, so they are forced to live in poor
places, which creates a vicious circle. It is much harder for them to get a job if they
live in poor areas. The price of renting a room or place in poor areas is not so much
cheaper than renting in a lower-middle class or working class area, but the poor
people simply do not have access to this. This creates social segregation. The
higher-middle class and rich people, in turn, complain that the poor people are lazy
and they don’t really want to work. They claim that their grandparents worked very
hard for what they accomplished (and they inherited). They do not consider that
European migration was actually favored by the government, and they got benefits
like land, credit, working schemes, etc.
Check out this comment but an Argentinian government official in 1999: “Bolivian migrants—as well as Chileans, Peruvians and Paraguayans—have
recently had to face intense xenophobic campaigns from national and local
governments as well as from some labor unions. These campaigns blame
immigrants from neighboring countries for the country’s social, economic, sanitary
and security problems. Secretary of State Guido di Tella anticipated that “in the
year 2020, 20% of the population (in Argentina) will be Bolivian or Paraguayan,”
and stated that “we want to be near the rich and the beautiful…we don’t want to be
with the horrible people””.
This explains why “ethnical Argentinians” are always dreaming about moving to
Europe. It is not exclusively based on economic reasons, like the Europeans that
they are, they like to be around white people. A common mistake in Argentina is
confusing those with Bolivian/Paraguayan background for people descendent of the
“original tribes”, as Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has called them repeatedly. The
“Indian looking” people that are found today in Argentina have nothing to do with
the original inhabitants. Remember that most of these were annihilated in the
“Conquest of the Desert” in the 1870s. They constitute migration from the nearby
countries and, since they are not well integrated, they have siblings amongst each
other. In that way, 3rd and even 4th generation Bolivian argentine is still culturally
Bolivian, and has to endure the same living conditions of their progenitors, with no
real possibility of social ascension. Born and raised in a hostile environment, many
of them turn to criminality.
Do real American-indians exist in Argentina today? Yes, but they are very few.
There are 600.000 recognized American-indians and are distributed along the
country, mainly in the northwest, northeast and the Andes mountains in the West.
They live in Indian reserves and are very skeptical towards the white man.
Check out the following chart regarding Argentinian’s ethnical background.
Consider that this 17,5% of “Amerindians”, are not really Amerindians but 2nd, 3rd
and 4th generation immigrants from neighbouring countries.[14]
Finally, an answer to the question I asked in the chapter “The Failure of New
Liberalism – The case of Argentina”. How does a country with the GDP x capital
of Austria or Italy manage to rank so low today? Besides the New Liberalism wave
that destroyed the country in the 1990s, the migration issue should be considered.
GDP x capita is explained by two factors: GDP and Population.
1. GDP: we can see in the chart how, following the steady, stable GDP growth
the country was having until 1990, GDP almost quadrupled. This was not
sustained in fundamental factors, but it was the result of the financial trick of
pegging the Argentine Peso to the USD. Salaries soared as a result, but also
unemployment, since the industry was not competitive. GDP did recover
massively in the 2003 – 2011, to stagnate again in the 2012 -2015 period.
2. Population Growth: check following this amazing chart regarding
population growth. Population doubled since the glorious 1970s.15 But
whereas the 1st and 2nd waves of migration, which were European, the 3rd
wave of migration (from nearby countries), was not so productive.
We see now clearly how the combination of population growth together with the
lost decade of the 1990s is what created the guettos or poverty focuses which one
notices right away when one arrives to the city of Buenos Aires. These guettos did
not exist when I was a kid. Criminality soured in the 1990s, from 2000 reported
theft cases to 10000 by the end of the decade. I will get back to that in a coming
chapter.[15]
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