Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the high wages paid by the railroads would lure all the male agricultural
workers away from the harvest.
Workers emigrated from Europe to Argentina in order to improve
their lives, or
“hacer laAmérica”
(to make America). This rise in real
wages provided the pull factor attracting thousands of European immi-
grants to Argentina. Except for the depression years of 1891 and 1895,
when many Europeans returned home, Argentine wages consistently
exceeded Italian and Spanish wages. This trend favored those workers
who came to the city. “Life here in Buenos Aires is always the same,”
wrote one immigrant to his parents in Italy. “There is a tremendous
amount of construction work. The workers took advantage of it and
have managed to get an eight-hour day at a pay that varies according to
the trade. The average is four pesos, but no one works for less except
the unskilled laborers” (Baily and Ramella 1988, 66). By 1895, more
than 80 percent of both skilled and manual laborers in Buenos Aires
were foreign-born.
Argentina received its largest portion of newcomers from the
Mediterranean countries. Italians comprised almost 49 percent of all
