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The Other Europeans: Immigration into Latin America and the International Labour Market (1870–1930)*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2010

Blanca Sánchez Alonso
Blanca Sánchez Alonso
Affiliation:
Universidad San Pablo-CEU
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Abstract

Not all Europeans migrated to the United States. Between 1879 and 1930 around 13 million of Europeans went to Latin America; however, Latin America is not fully incorporated into current debates on the cost and benefits from Atlantic migration. This paper surveys Latin America's immigration from the late nineteenth century to 1930. It assesses inferences about European migrants in Latin America derived from the experience of migrants in the United States and questions its validity. The topics covered here include migration trends and chronology, national origin of the flows and the evolution of real wages. New data on the cost of passages for transatlantic migration is also presented. This is followed by an examination of the immigrants' contribution to economic growth in Latin America dealing basically with the issue of human capital brought in by European immigrants. The extent to which immigrants alter the composition of the labour force and the demographic structure, both in the short and the long run is also examined.

Resumen

No todos los europeos emigraron a Estados Unidos. Entre 1879 y 1930 alrededor de 13 millones de europeos fueron a América Latina. Sin embargo, América Latina no está plenamente incorporada a los debates actuales sobre costes y beneficios de las migraciones atlánticas. Este artículo presenta un estado de la cuestión de la inmigración en América Latina desde finales del siglo XIX hasta 1930. Evalúa las inferencias realizadas a partir de la experiencia de los inmigrantes europeos en Estados Unidos y se cuestiona su validez para el caso latinoamericano. Los temas tratados en la primera sección incluyen las tendencias migratorias y su cronología, el origen nacional de los flujos y la evolución de los salarios reales entre países receptores y emisores. El trabajo presenta nuevos datos sobre el coste del transporte en la migración internacional. Una segunda sección examina la contribución de los inmigrantes al crecimiento eco nómico de América Latina, con especial énfasis en el capital humano de los inmigrantes europeos. El impacto de la inmigración sobre la mano de obra y la estructura demográfica de los países de inmigración, en el corto y en el largo plazo, se analiza en la sección siguiente.

Keywords

mercado internacional de trabajoinmigraciónAmérica Latinainternational labour marketimmigrationLatin America
Type
Articles/Artículos
Information
Revista de Historia Economica - Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , Invierno 2007 , pp. 395 - 426
Copyright
Copyright © Instituto Figuerola de Historia y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid 2007

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