Dual Nationality in Argentina

Early in the beginning of our nation’s history (Argentina) dual nationality expressed one of the basic pillars to the foundation constitution of our country. Millions of Spaniards and Italians came to Argentina seeking a better life for themselves and their families.

This developing country welcomed them openhearted; Argentina needed workers and millions of poor Europeans needed to work. It was a perfect match. The 1800s went by, the nation grew. Argentina was becoming to be the world’s barn and Latin America’s most developed country in terms of culture, economy and politics. At this point, at the end of the 19th century, the country needed a solid nation, a sense of belonging to a motherland that was no longer across the Atlantic, but right here, in the most southern part of the American Continent. Those immigrants, who at first came from Italy and Spain, began to flow from other European countries such as Ireland, Poland, Russia and the list goes on and on. Most of these new comers maintained their homeland traditions in their new Argentinean homes, they spoke their dialects and cultural languages such as Yiddish. They also brought with them culinary and religious traditions. It was a broad fan of cultures. Early in the 1900s the Argentinean government set the basic foundations for a national educational system. The other side of this cultural coin was a political need of inclusion. Universal male mandatory voting was established and soon most of those immigrants embraced the Argentinean nationality. This multicultural and multiracial country was becoming to be one nation, a motherland.

More than 100 years latter, in 2001, this nation, this motherland went through a very complicated crisis. Such was the deepness of this crisis that hundreds of families and individuals began to look across the pond to their forefathers’ motherland in Europe as an alternative to the critical situation they were going through. They, then went to the embassies claiming for a dual citizenship, theirs and their grandparents or great grandparents’ . Argentina who had welcomed openhearted those generations over a century ago, turned to Europe asking for them to do something similar to what they had done.

As the world keeps on turning, and history evolves, the turns of life put us in a similar context of that one hundred years ago, it was similar and different at the same time. Dual citizenship allowed many Argentineans to seek a better present abroad without having to give up their history, their roots, their identity as Argentineans, South Americans and Latinos and become in this way a sort of citizen of the world. May be this turns of life are a reflection of our world. We have globalized communications and economies, why not globalized citizens?

The Buenos Aires Art Dealer
Art, Antiques and Collectibles in Argentina.