Argentina: demographics and immigration to North America

General Information about Argentina

Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic is the second largest country in South America. It is the eighth -largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations.

Population

In 2001 census , Argentina had a population of 36,260,130 inhabitants, and the official population estimate for 2009 is of 40,134,425. Argentina ranks third in South America in total population and 33rd globally. The population growth rate in 2008 was estimated to be 0.92% annually, with a birth rate of 16.32 live births per 1,000 inhabitants and a mortality rate of 7.54 deaths per 1,000 inhabitants.

Argentina is considered a country of immigrants. Most Argentinians are descended from colonial-era settlers and of the 19th and 20th century immigrants from Europe, and 86.4% of Argentina's population self-identify as European decedents. An estimated 8% of the population is Mestizo, and a further 4% of Argentinians are of Arab or East Asian heritage. In the last national census, based on self-identification, 600,000 Argentinians (1.6%) declared to be Amerindians.

Argentina, an ethnically diverse country, about 90 percent of the Argentinean population consists of immigrants from Italy and Spain and their descendants. In the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, other ethnic groups, including Germans, Poles, Welsh, Irish, Lebanese, Hungarians, Czechs, Danish, French, Jews, Japanese, Koreans, and Swiss also chose Argentina for settlement. Almost half of the immigrants who arrived during that period eventually returned to their countries of origin.

Religion

Approximately 90 percent of Argentinians are born Roman Catholics. About two percent of the population is Protestant and, according to recent Argentinean statistics, about 400,000 Jews live in Buenos Aires.

According to the World Christian Database. Argentines are 92.1% Christian, 3.1% agostic, 1.95 Muslim, 1.3% Jewish, 0.9% Atheist, and 0.9% Buddhist and other.Argentine Christians are mostly Roman Catholic.

Language

The official language of Argentina is Spanish, usually called castellano (Castilian) by Argentines.

Immigration to the United States

Prior to the 1970s, Argentinean immigrants were classified by the U.S. government within the broad category of "Other Hispanics," and immigration statistics from before that time do not exist. Nonetheless, Argentinean immigrants to the United States are a relatively new group.

In 1970 there were 44,803 Argentinean immigrants in the United States. The 1990 U.S. Census, which counted 92,563 Argentinians, indicates that nearly half of all Argentinean immigrants arrived in the United States in the last two decades alone.

Early Argentinian immigrants came to the United States, primarily during the 1960s, in search of greater economic opportunities. Later Argentinians began to immigrate to the United States during the mid- to late-1970s— in order to escape political persecution during the "dirty war." This group was more diverse and less educated than their predecessors, although their educational attainment tended to be higher than that of Argentina's overall population.

In the 1970s, 20 % of the Argentinians in the United States resided in the New York metropolitan area. In the 1980s, this percentage increased to just over 23 percent.

Overall, Argentinean Americans typically prefer metropolitan areas, such as New York City, where 17,363 Argentinean Americans were counted in the 1990 U.S. Census, and Los Angeles, home for 15,115 Argentinean immigrants. The least preferred destinations are North Dakota and Montana, where only 15 Argentinians were counted in each state.

Just the Beginning of issues encountered in the Immigration to the United Sates

Due to Argentina's ethnically diverse population challenges arises as any attempts are made to to ethnically classify Argentinean Americans. Commonly used terms when referring to people of South America are "Hispanic" and "Latino." The use of these terms do present problems when they are used to define Argentinian Americans as well as many other people from the Americas. The word "Hispanic" derives from the Latin word "Hispania," a proper name in Latin that describes the area also known as the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal). The questionnaire for the 1990 U.S. Census, uses the term to apply to Argentinian Americans which, excludes almost half of their population, most of whom are Italian born or of Italian descent. The term "Latino" also presents some major difficulties in describing the cultural and ethnic diversity of South America, which extends far beyond its Latin European heritage. The term Latin America excludes the native people of Central and South America, as well as its numerous immigrant groups who have little in common with the Latin European countries.