Ukrainian Argentine - History

History

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.

The first wave of Ukrainian immigration to Argentina included 12-14 families from Eastern Galicia (at the time part of Austria-Hungary) in 1897. When the immigrants arrived in the country, the Argentine government sent them to the Misiones Province, where they settled in Apóstoles. Their settlement here was part of the local governor's strategy of building up European immigration in his province as a way of preventing neighboring Brazil's claims on the region. The settlers were granted land allotments of 123.6 hectares, or 50 acres (200,000 m2) in two identical lots, with one lot being used for agriculture and the other for cattle breeding. Initially, they struggled with adapting to climatic conditions quite different from those of their native Ukraine, and eventually largely switched to tending crops that were appropriate to their new homes, such as sugar cane, rice, tobacco, and especially yerba mate - South American tea. Indeed, the first person to grow tea in the province of Misiones was Volodymyr Hnatiuk, a Ukrainian immigrant. Ultimately, at least 10,000 Ukrainians from Galicia settled in Misiones before the onset of World War I. At this time, an estimated 4,000 Ukrainians also settled in Buenos Aires.

The largest number of Ukrainians migrated to Argentina between the two world wars. This wave of emigrants, whose number is estimated at between 50,000 and 70,000 people, was much more geographically diverse, and included many people from Orthodox areas of Ukraine such as Volhynia and Bukovina. It also included more educated or politically oriented people who had been involved in Ukraine's struggle for independence. Approximately half of this wave of immigrants settled in Buenos Aires, while the remainder strengthened the Ukrainian population in Misiones Province or created new Ukrainian settlements in other agricultural regions such as in Chaco Province.

Approximately 5,000-6,000 Ukrainians fleeing Communism entered Argentina between 1946 and 1950. Many of them were university professors, military personnel, skilled workers, or technicians. Some of these educated immigrants contributed to the Argentine government's industrialization policies.

An estimated 3,000 highly educated Ukrainians, many from the third wave, left Argentina for America or Canada in the 1950s due to greater economic opportunities. Another 3,000 Ukrainians left Argentina for the Soviet Union during the late 1950s, after having been promised a "prosperous life in the homeland." Only a third of the latter group were able to return to Argentina. These demographic losses were compensated for by small numbers of Ukrainians moving to Argentina from Paraguay and Uruguay.

Following the fall of the Soviet Union, since the 1990s approximately 4,000 Ukrainians have moved to Argentina from Ukraine.