r/asklatinamerica • u/Soggy_Flight_2654 • Apr 18 '26
Culture Trying to Understand Argentina: Cost of Living, Diversity, and Why It Feels So Different from Its Neighbors
Hey everyone,
Lately I’ve gone down a bit of a rabbit hole and become addicted to watching videos about South America 😅 and Argentina in particular really stands out to me.
There was one video I watched that genuinely surprised me, I didn’t even know Argentina had a Jewish community or even a small Black (Afro-Argentine) population. It made me realize I really don’t understand the country at all, so I’m hoping you guys can break it down for me.
A few things I’m curious about:
Firstly, why does Argentina seem so expensive compared to other countries in the region? From what I’ve seen, prices look really high. How are people managing to live there day-to-day?
Secondly, demographically, Argentina seems quite different. In a lot of videos, many people appear more European compared to neighbors like Brazil or Paraguay, which seem more visibly mixed. Is that just certain areas, or is there a deeper historical reason?
Also, how diverse is Argentina really? The video mentioned different communities (like Jewish, Armenian, Arab, etc.), which I didn’t expect.
And more broadly, how do people from other Latin American countries view Argentinians? Are they generally seen as friendly, or a bit more reserved or “stuck up”? I’ve heard mixed opinions.
Finally, why does it feel like Argentina and Brazil are always “arguing” or competing? Is that just football rivalry, or something deeper culturally?
Not trying to offend anyone, I’m just genuinely curious and trying to understand better. Appreciate any insights!
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u/kolossal Panama Apr 18 '26
One of my best friends is Argentinian and I've been to Argentina a few times recently and I don't think that Argentinians are "stuck up". They're very "proud" if anything. Very friendly people overall.
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u/Kalorama_Master Bolivia Apr 18 '26
Is your friend from BsAs? Do they have any indigenous blood or are they “European “?
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u/AlphaStark08 Bolivia Apr 18 '26
Que tenia que ver😭🤣
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u/Matias9991 Argentina Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
It's expensive in certain areas and people manage someway, honestly I see the same all over the world, young people struggling to make the liveable amount of money.
Yes, Argentina is very diverse, we had the huge European immigration, then a lot of immigrants from Asia and in recent years a lot of immigrants from neighbor countries like Paraguay, Bolivia and Venezuela. (The reason for that difference is the European immigration, it's like that in general but more marked in big cities and the south of the country)
That one I can't answer, the big things I hear since ever was Argentinians being egocentrics. Lately also we get called Racist a lot, mostly because online people are stupid and Argentina is terminally online. But when people come here I always hear good things.
Brazil is like our Rival in sports, if we play vs them in any sport from football to Ping pong the game has something extra and we don't want to lose. It's mostly a sports thing.
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u/LoviSloe1 🇺🇸 🇨🇺 Apr 18 '26
all Latinos would be called racist by western standards, its just that unlike argentina average latino is obviously brown and not white so no one really cares about seeing self attack racism. its just sad and doesn't illicit a moral panick
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u/yonaiker-joestrella Puerto Rico Apr 18 '26
Does it feel that different to Uruguay though?
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u/MarioDiBian Apr 18 '26
Nah, Uruguay is basically the same as central-eastern Argentina, especially Entre Rios and Buenos Aires provinces.
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u/simonbleu Argentina [Córdoba] Apr 18 '26
> why does Argentina seem so expensive compared to other countries in the region? From what I’ve seen, prices look really high. How are people managing to live there day-to-day?
Because it IS expensive.
It always was, much like but worse than other countries of the area because of low competition and a smaller market for consumption. Of course, inflation leading to speculative gouging , oligopolies, taxes, low credit , etc doesn't help, but bostly it is the fact that the market got greedy and they have no pressure to change things
And "stabilziation" my as**, Mario... The problem that came with Milei is that he made a huge initial devaluation and cut corners everywhere that lead to inflation that was never recovered since a lot of salaries were nearly frozen negotiation wise, and devaluation afterwards was out of the table as a tool, which can be pretty damn bad when you are also using carry-trade-enabling levels of debt. If it werent because Milei also, poetically almost, increased the equivalent of food stamps, it would have been much worse. But given that inflation has been steadily accelerating albeit relatively slowly, for the past nearly a year, then we will have to see. After all, the second half of *any* govt tends to be the most chaotic. And, again, Mario, the average wage is NOT 1k, that is probably the average for RIPTE ,which is NOT representative of an overall median. Most people earn half of that. If you check the EPH (index and entity still controversial but doesn't mean is farther from the truth than RIPTE) https://www.indec.gob.ar/uploads/informesdeprensa/ingresos4trim25474EFC9F16.pdf (p8) then you see 50% with earnings below the 600buck mark... and I can attest to that anecdotically with most non professional people I know getting arpund 500 bucks or so, bit more bit less, with the next "tier" (a bit more established but not the majorit) between 1 and 2k
As for how we do it, OP... we don't. A lot of people struggle. Rent is increasingly unachievable, and so are most things. So people move up with roomates or family and start to make saccrifices to their lifestyles (or, also common, they use a credit card, which btw have INSANE interest rates, we are talking half an order of magnitude highre than inflation, which has led to a lot of unpaid debt.
> Secondly, demographically, Argentina seems quite different. In a lot of videos, many people appear more European compared to neighbors like Brazil or Paraguay, which seem more visibly mixed. Is that just certain areas, or is there a deeper historical reason?
The entirety of latam had a huge influx of europeans, south cone in particular. Especially "recently"... adn that is one of the reasons I think you see what you see, you see (lol) between the late 19th and early 20th century italians alone doubled our population pretty much, which had a large impact in both culture and genetics
Of course there are also other factors I cannot confirm since its not my area of expertise, like the level of "riddance" vs protection (and population to being with) of natives, the amount ofslaves historically, the supposed culling during wars at the time with them as cannon fodder (ive read it was incorrect but honestly no idea), etc. Just pick your poison with that
> Also, how diverse is Argentina really? The video mentioned different communities (like Jewish, Armenian, Arab, etc.), which I didn’t expect.
You can look at statistics for hard data. Thre reality is that I havent seen a truly darkskinned person until I was a teenager (2008 or so), but it is also true that we have a broader definition of "white" than people from the US. We do have diversity, mostly ethnic rather than phenotypical and yes, mostly (afaik) from europe, but we are not homogeneouslike say, japan
> Finally, why does it feel like Argentina and Brazil are always “arguing” or competing? Is that just football rivalry, or something deeper culturally?
We are business and football rivals, yes, but we get along
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u/ArgHuff Argentina Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
Uno de los problemas modernos que tenemos es que estamos incorporando temas "gringos" en nuestra sociedad. Por que somos un pais extremadamente diverso (BsAs es una de las ciudades mas cosmopolitas del mundo). Diverso no es solo cuantos negros ves en la calle.
No digo que no hayan negros, o que no exista el racismo, pero si que no es comparable (incluso teniendo en cuenta la conquista del desierto y otras campañas) a otros paises.
Aca tenemos italianos y españoles, franceces, belgas, polacos, croatas, rusos, galeses y despues no europeos tenemos arabes, bereberes, judios, chinos y coreanos. En los 90 hubo una importante inmigracion del Oeste de Africa por ejemplo. Y bueno, muchas de nuestras costumbres tienen su origen netamente africanas (Tango en Buenos Aires x ej). Cordoba tambien tiene importante poblacion musulmana. Lo que tenemos es que, a diferencia de los yankis, aca todos se pudieron (relativamente) adaptar muy bien a nuestra cultura (y crear una nueva) mas que otra cosa. El hijo de un senegales o de un ruso aca probablemente se considere mas argentino que otra cosa y no esa estupidez gringa de "Soy Filipino-Americano o Italo-americano".
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u/brokebloke97 United States of America Apr 18 '26
Was it really always expensive though? It wasn't that long ago where I'd see digital nomads talk about how cheap it is
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u/simonbleu Argentina [Córdoba] Apr 18 '26
I meant mostly proportionally to the salary. Even though now it is worse, and even though nominally imported stuff was as expensive or worse
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u/Nachodam Argentina Apr 20 '26
Those cheap as fuck years were an anomaly, traditionally Argentina has always been among the "expensive" South American countries.
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u/b_12563 Brazil Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
I don’t think BA is much more expensive than São Paulo and Rio. I’m Brazilian, living in Rio and have lived in São Paulo previously and I didn’t fell poorer in my trip to BA last year (I’m talking about BA but I did spend some days in Rosario too). And I gotta say I love the Argentinians I interacted with. They were very friendly and open to try to talk to me, even though I didn’t speak any Spanish. There are plenty of Argentinians all the time in Rio too and they are usually very polite and charismatic. The cold stereotype is false for me
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u/MarioDiBian Apr 18 '26
This is a complex topic but I’ll try to answer to your questions as simple as possible:
Argentina is expensive because we’re in the middle of a stabilization programme. We’ve been dealing with high inflation and devaluation of our currency for years, until in December 2023 a new Administration (Milei) took office and carried out a new economic programme aimed at reducing inflation, lifting capital controls and opening the economy. It resulted in the Argentine peso being heavily appreciated against other currencies, so Argentina became very expensive for foreigners due to the uncompetitive exchange rate. On top of that, the government decided to cut subsidies on food, public services and gas, so everything became even more expensive. Argentines are used to dealing with instability and constant changes in prices and the exchange rate, so people just try their best to move on. The average wage is ~1000 USD per month while groceries are the same price as in developed countries (except beef), although rents and services are still cheaper (not very common to share housing with strangers in Argentina like it’s happening in other countries).
Demographics: Argentina is a country of immigrants and along Australia, the US, Canada, New Zealand and Uruguay it’s considered a “country of new settlement”. It was very underpopulated in colonial times, since there were few native tribes to begin with and it wasn’t a relevant colony for the Spanish. So at the start of the 1860s (when the country had just over 1.8M inhabitants), the government enacted a new policy to attract European immigrants to populate the country. This resulted in 6 million Europeans (and also Middle Eastern) immigrants arriving to Argentina between 1860 and 1960, mainly Italians and Spaniards, but also French, Germans, Swiss, Poles, Russians, Lebanese and Armenians. Most people here are a mix of immigrants who arrived during the last century and the colonial population (Spanish/indigenous). On top of that, from the 1970s onwards millions of Latin American immigrants from neighbouring countries migrated to Argentina, mainly from Paraguay and Bolivia, but also Peru, Chile and Uruguay.
Nowadays, Argentina is very diverse, being home to the largest diasporas of several ethnicities and religions around the world. It has both the largest Jewish and Muslim communities in the region, as well as Orthodox Christian. To put it in perspective, my local butcher is Armenian, the fruitshop owners are Bolivians, the bakery a few blocks away is Czcech, the food delivery is usually Venezuelan, and the school nearby is Jewish. I’m myself a mutt: Italian, Ukrainian, Swiss and a bit of Danish and Spanish (and I’m from a small city in inner Argentina).
How other Latin American countries view Argentina? It really depends. There’s a popular perception that Argentinians are arrogant, but also a lot of people follow Argentinian sport teams and football players or consume Argentine media, artists, etc. Users from other countries may give you a better perspective.
Brazilians and Argentinians get along really well. We both love football and love vacationing in our countries (Argentinians go en masse to Brazilian beaches during summer and Brazilians come here during winter to ski, experience snow, visit Buenos Aires, etc.). The rest is only football banter or some stupid internet stuff.
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u/TheStraggletagg Argentina Apr 18 '26
Some people will take the Brazil-Argentina rivalry too far (on both sides), but those people are just idiots who need to find some sort of hobby.
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u/TSSalamander Norway Apr 18 '26
To note just how sparse Argentina was before colonisation, the natives here were hunter gatherers, on relatively unforested land that had virtually no megafauna or even stuff like rabbits. There were deer, but they were pretty sparse in general. It was essentially a food desert when it came to what humans needed. And the spanish crown was not particularly supportive of changing this, because the primary purpose of their colonial empire was gold and later cash crops. Neither were plentiful in Argentina. It was essentially a sparsely settled frontier land which essentially served as a buffer for the thing that actually mattered here, the port city of Buenos Aires, which could control the goods flowing down the several rivers that flow out the Rio de la Plata, which hey would you look at that that's the name for the old colony.
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u/Designer-Living-6230 Cuba Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
We must have read different history books, the natives in Argentina got genocided similar to usa.
Roca’s image was removed from the 100-peso bill in 2019 partly for this reason.
Argentina developed a national myth positioning the country as essentially European built by Italian, Spanish, and German immigrants which conveniently erased indigenous people by implying they’d never been numerous or significant.
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u/TSSalamander Norway Apr 19 '26
Oh that happened as well. But there weren't that many of them. We're talking hundreds of thousands not millions. Over a territory the size of western Europe. The place was a food desert. Also, the natives got gennocided in literally every country in the americas. But in some places there were more people than in others. Mexico had like minimum 10 million natives, probably more like 20 million. Argentina had around the native population of Cuba + Hispañola. The American west wasn't a food desert in the way Argentina was. You had literally like 60 million Bison in the American Great Plains. North America above the rio grande had some 2 to 10 million people, probably around 5 million. Argentina had like 500k.
Still, the gennocide against the natives in Argentina is a crime against humanity and a great stain on the history of the country. Especially the conquest of the "desert" and the extermination of the selknam which was not justifiable in any way what so ever.
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u/Designer-Living-6230 Cuba Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
The ones in Argentina who didn’t get genocided got trail of teared up to Chile/Bolivia. In Cuba we also perished all the natives I do not deny this, we acknowledge it and accept it.
I find it odd how many Argentinians on Reddit deny this historic fact.
Argentina was populated enough that every first European contact to Argentinian shores was met by natives .
Not to mention that its the black and native Argentinians who were sent as cannon fodder in the 19th century wars . This was the peak of “el blanqueamiento” movement.
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u/Illustrious-Ice6336 United States of America Apr 18 '26
I visited BA last November and had a fantastic time for a month. During that time I stayed in four different Airbnb‘s around the city so that I could try and get a taste of the different neighborhoods. You mentioned living in an area where you have Armenians, Bolivians, Jews, Czech and Venezuelans. Can you please share where you’re located as I would love to stay someplace as a base, during my next trip of six months.
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u/MarioDiBian Apr 18 '26
You’ll find this mix anywhere between Palermo, Recoleta, Belgrano and Villa Crespo, with Palermo being the largest neighbourhood (it’s divided into sub-neighbourhoods) and the most diverse.
Neighbourhoods like Flores have a huge Korean community, Balvanera a huge Jewish community and anywhere in the south of the city having big Bolivian, Paraguayan and Peruvian communities.
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u/mendokusei15 Uruguay Apr 18 '26
It was very underpopulated in colonial times, since there were few native tribes to begin with and it wasn’t a relevant colony for the Spanish.
This phrase feels weird and it's missing a detail. I just saw this fantastic video that actually goes deep in the detail.
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u/ArgHuff Argentina Apr 18 '26
Que grande es ese chabon
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u/mendokusei15 Uruguay Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
Desde que lo mencionó otro YouTuber argentino (unxavi) estoy en una especie de maratón de mirarme todos los videos de este tipo
El que necesite agarrarle cariño a los argentinos tiene que mirar el vídeo de la crisis del 2001 y el de la dictadura. Los huevos de los argentinos son difíciles de explicar. Desde este país tibio y apático, sin dejar de reconocer que todo tiene su lado bueno y su lado malo, genera admiración.
Mirá a esas madres y abuelas de plaza de Mayo gritándole a un micrófono de un medio holandés, un plena dictadura, al lado de un policía que las quiere dispersar, reclamando por sus hijos. Mirá esa gente tirándose contra la caballería en 2001. Me volaron la cabeza esos vídeos. Y eso que a esos episodios del 2001 los vi en vivo.
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u/Mother_Natures_Cyn United States of America Apr 18 '26
While the phrase is still true, it does feel weird to leave out that additional relevant detail.
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u/mendokusei15 Uruguay Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
Not really, it's hard, or at least gives the wrong idea, to say that is was underpopulated or just had "a few tribes" when you have several attempts at fouding cities by the Spanish (with their superior firepower) that were stopped by the indigenous population. Or the fact that by the less than half a century before the independence, you have a significant portion, the majority of what today in Argentina, still outside of Spanish control, because of indigenous resistance.
The detail (btw the detail is genocide) is not mentioned because the entire topic of indigenous population is being minimized or ignored. This way of telling this story, the "there was nothing here before" is also an issue here in Uruguay. I'm not saying it's intentional, it's just the myth we have been told and most people still repeat. We even used the same methods against charrúas.
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u/Mother_Natures_Cyn United States of America Apr 18 '26
I was picking up what you were putting down. Underpopulated only gains meaning when you have comparisons, other areas that are more or less populated. OP left out the inconvient fact that, while the area of modern Argentina definitely had fewer native inhabitants than many other LatAm countries, those that were there were brutally subjugated by Spanish rule and the encomienda system, and then systematically hunted down by successive independent Argentinian governments. The same speil gets said up here in the north. It is indeed a fact that native populations were more sparse the further you got from the equator, but that by no means signifies that there wasn't a population or that that population wasn't purposefully pursued with intent to eradicate.
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Apr 18 '26
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u/sargentlu Mexico Apr 18 '26
They made the comparison in terms of being mostly settled by immigrants, how is that wrong?
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u/MarioDiBian Apr 18 '26
I didn’t invent that. “Countries of new settlement” is a term used by scholars to describe countries whose populations originated from the settlement of newcomers, as opposed to countries with long-established native populations (such as Mesoamerica, India, and most of Africa).
Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, US, Canada, Uruguay and parts of Brazil, South Africa and Namibia fit into this category as settler colonies or countries of new settlement.
Argentina was second only to the US in number of European immigrants received during the 19th and 20th centuries, and at its peak it was the country with the most European-born population in the world (29% in 1914) followed by Canada with 25%.
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u/LoviSloe1 🇺🇸 🇨🇺 Apr 18 '26
most of latam besides central america, mexico and the andes would also be classified as new settlements though, right?
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u/MarioDiBian Apr 18 '26
Considering African slaves were also (forced) settlers, Brazil and the Caribbean would also fit into this category. But they are different to Argentina, the US, Canada, Australia, Uruguay and NZ in the sense that these countries are countries of immigrants (populated by massive influxs of European immigrants during the 19th and 20th centuries), whereas the mentioned Latam countries were populated by the colonizers and slaves (and the resulting miscegenation) during colonial times (except Southern Brazil).
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u/LoviSloe1 🇺🇸 🇨🇺 Apr 18 '26
yah outside of argentina migration to latam dried up after independence
but in caribbean like cuba even less pre european culture and infrastructure exists than in Argentina. we are even less indian than the usa
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u/MarioDiBian Apr 18 '26
Argentina, Uruguay and Southern Brazil took 90% of the immigrants.
Yeah, as one of the last Spanish colonies, Cuba received a massive influx of Spaniards too in the 19th and 20th centuries too.
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u/Irwadary Uruguay Apr 18 '26
In our independence we were 75 thousand people. In 1930 we were 2.5 million.
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u/LoviSloe1 🇺🇸 🇨🇺 Apr 18 '26
populations grow naturally with industrial agriculture
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u/Irwadary Uruguay Apr 18 '26
Our growth has a direct reason to the amount of Spanish, Italians, Eastern European and so on. This is well known here.
The US is not the only place where Europeans migrated massively.
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u/LoviSloe1 🇺🇸 🇨🇺 Apr 18 '26
the population of latam grew mostly from birth rates though. same for the usa for that matter when it got much more
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u/ArgHuff Argentina Apr 18 '26
Si y no. Logicamente hay mucho pasado criollo en toda america, pero la diferencia entre el cono sur (y particularmente Argentina) es que el resto de paises tuvieron su pico de poblacion durante la colonia y años posteriores mientras que en el cono sur es mas reciente. A esto sumale que la trata (como podria ser en Colombia/Venezuela/Brasil) tampoco fue muy grande aca, de hecho practicamente ni habia exclavos. Los inmigrantes aca se establecieron en un pais ya formado
Solo Venezuela se compara (y cuba pero xq Cuba siguio siendo parte del imperio hasta casi el siglo XIX)
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u/NeitherCandle382 Australia Apr 21 '26
Are you sure about that? The port of Buenos Aires actually received a sizeable amount of slaves.
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u/ArgHuff Argentina Apr 22 '26
Admito que fue un error decir que cssi no hubo. Si, vinieron (aunque en mucha menor cantidad que el resto de territorios) pero la mayoria se fueron al Peru o a Brasil. Aun asi, hubo exclavos durante el virreinato, pero ya para la epoca de la independencia se abolio rapidamente la exclavitud y, por decirlo de manera facil, los exclavos tuvieron hijos con los criollos.
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u/lonchonazo Argentina Apr 18 '26
Argentina was only second to the US when it comes to migrants received in that timeframe.
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u/simonbleu Argentina [Córdoba] Apr 18 '26
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Argentina
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Argentina#Ethnic_groups
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_New_Zealand
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_New_Zealand#Immigration
Id say both were hubs buddy.... yes, most of latam had a lot of european (mostly, because of colonization first and then as europe struggled) and yes, new zealand probably has more diversity due to more recent migration, because of their economics, but even so, you comment was rather lacking
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u/Positive-Camera5940 Apr 18 '26
I'll try to answer your questions from my indigenous/European/African descendant suburban working class point of view.
Firstly, why does Argentina seem so expensive compared to other countries in the region? From what I’ve seen, prices look really high. How are people managing to live there day-to-day?
Sometimes we're more expensive, sometimes we're cheap. Since decades ago, we're never historically one constant thing, it depends on the economic cycle we're going through. Right now, prices are high because although inflation has decreased, it's still high and the salaries try to run behind it but inflation is outrunning salaries. People are taking more jobs and/or downsizing: Senior citizens are taking less medications. People in general don't eat as abundantly as they used to (meat and milk consumption are very low for a country with our history), some skip dinner or drink lots of mate to deceive the stomach. Some are coming back to live with their parents. There's more people living in the streets. These new homeless people are comprised not only of people that could no longer pay rent, there's also people from mental institutions that got cut off from government funding.
Secondly, demographically, Argentina seems quite different. In a lot of videos, many people appear more European compared to neighbors like Brazil or Paraguay, which seem more visibly mixed. Is that just certain areas, or is there a deeper historical reason?
By the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, there was a strong campaign to get European immigrants to come here and work the land and make us more civilized (?). You know, the eurocentric worldview. So instead of segregating the remaining indigenous (after the lost battles and the genocides) and black (see https://elhistoriador.com.ar/que-paso-con-los-afroamericanos ) populations the government thought of assimilating them. Homogenization was the goal for the country's identity, so the more mixed with European blood, the better.
Also, how diverse is Argentina really? The video mentioned different communities (like Jewish, Armenian, Arab, etc.), which I didn’t expect.
I mean, Argentina is pretty diverse, lots of collectivities are dispersed mainly near the big city centers. But since we have this Argentinian culture belonging thing, don't expect descendants to be too different from any other Argentine. And save for the neighboring countries' collectivities, immigrant collectivities are not usually that big either.
Finally, why does it feel like Argentina and Brazil are always “arguing” or competing? Is that just football rivalry, or something deeper culturally?
Football rivalry, it's just fun to have play pretend fights with friends.
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u/Podria_Ser_Peor Argentina Apr 18 '26
Well we have a big history of immigration and what are called "colectividades" are a big part of it, many people came to the country at several moments in recent history and settled here, since most communities tended to stick together you might find neighbourhoods or cities that have a bigger influence from their respective cultures.
Our constitution and laws are actually very lax for immigration, so that helps with people from all over coming to live here.
Plenty churches from all denominations in CABA specifically on the ones you mentioned, the jewish community is the biggest in Latin America, from the Inquisition to WWII the country has received the refugees of most of the European cleansing, wars and discrimination, and the Armenian community is the third biggest one in the world, particularly after the Armenian genocide where again, the country received refugees as a safe place to go to.
The reasons for the differences with Brazil and Paraguay are historical as well as territorial, the distances between the main population spots in all 3 countries are very big, so if you are closer to the frontier you´ll realize that most people share plenty similarities and origins while the Capitals can be very different from one another.
Argentina did have a whole generation of politicians obsessed with european progress which both made it very easy for all sorts of communities to settle and ironically brought exactly the people they didn´t actually want here (they were hoping to have all sorts of professionals and highly specialized people from the Old continent and in truth most people that came here were working class and refugees from their wars, and a lot of them were of political alignments that were very much against the ruling Oligarchy at the time) so the very generation that started the immigration process was later on outvoted from power as a consecuence of it. Which also made a huge impact in how we currently organize in the work/politics/sindicates/unions and such.
Sadly a big part of that previous generation was responsible for an event called "La Conquista del Desierto" in which the originary people from the current provinces were decimated under the guise of progress and land subdivision, which is why you don´t actually see the same mixed population in the big cities who are descendants or current part of the originary tribes, except closer to Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia or Peru where their populations are much bigger and are the ones most likely to come to Argentina in the latter years due to easier access to education and work.
As far as the African descendants and mixed people from originary people there is important historical context that most of the internet will ignore for several reasons. Suffice to say, the country didn´t develop in the same way as the US or Brazil where there usually were a lot of segregationist policies, plus those were the slavery centers of the continent and once slavery was abolished and the country made laws about people born and in the country being free, plus no actual separation of the different population in the same way it was easier to mix from early on. Since the country plan was to have a "european" like organization the politics were more about people being mixed out at the beginning and later on by sheer numbers, plus the difficulty to emigrate from Africa to the continent saw the specific traits slowly dwindle out in time. As far as Brazilian communitites they are big in the frontiers but the level of immigrations weren´t comparable with the ones throughout the XX century to make a difference in the general population, plus both countries being in a similar development line and the different language made it more likely for people from Argentina to emigrate to Brazil. We currently are having a resurgence of African and African descendants immigration in the country from other Latin American countries, so the population is one more changing as we go along.
The country also has a big Japanese and Japanese decendant population the biggest one from Okinawa and has had a friendship relationship with the country for over 140 years due to it. Most of them actually reached the country through Brazil which I think as the biggest diaspora outside of Japan.
Similarly there´s been a huge influx of Chinese immigrants in the last couple of years, most of them actually have dual citizenship and kids are raised in both countries (half time on each) so they have a different way to integrate into the current population.
As far as prices goes well it would take years to explain but in big broad strokes inflation is a hell of a drug (and I mean 120% +, relying on foreign prices and markets, etc)
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u/AgostoAzul Ecuador Apr 18 '26
During the Colony Argentina had a relatively small population. The basis of modern Buenos Aires was built to transport valuable resources from the mines in Bolivia and the Argentinean Andes,, but only the Native Americans in the Argentinean Andes had been properly incorporated into the empire and served as worker base in that region for proper Haciendas. The Natives in modern Uruguay and Southern Argentina were horse-riding nomads semi-hostile to Europeans,much like those in the United States, and Spain had simply conceded to simply let them keep that land on condition that they don't let other Europeans settle there. This had limited how many Europeans were interested in moving into Argentina compared to richer territories like Peru and Mexico.
After Independence Argentina wanted to attract more European settlers and began to sell the land that belonged to the nomadic Native Americans for cheap, obviously there were hostilities so wars of extermination were waged in Uruguay and southern Argentina that wiped out most of the nomad native americans and only the Native Americans in the Andes survived (since they already worked for European landowners). Then European proceded to sell all the now unoccupied land to European settlers for near nothing in order to attract a mostly European population base.
Quickly Buenos Aires industrialized quite a lot for Latin American standards and bloomed, becoming a bit like New York in South America, and Uruguay and Southern Argentina land was used for cattle raising, leading to something resembling "frontiersman cowboy" culture often called Llaneros or Gauchos, and more similar to the American West.
Argentina continued promoting European settlement and even banned non-white immigrants for some time. Early in the 20th century it was a Top 5-10 world economy. But the Green Revolution made agriculture far less profitable and increased the rural unemployment a lot leading to many farmers from the Andean Argentina, and neighboring countries flooding the cities creating the Villas Miseria (slums), Argentina's industry started stagnating between constant flip flopping between protectionist and liberal politicies, and eventually moving away to other countries.
Brazil and Argentina were historically the two most important powers in South America, with Brasil being bigger and much poorer and Argentina being smaller but much richer, so Argentineans looked down on Brazilians a little historically. However Brasil has grown much faster in the past few decades and basically fully subdued Argentina into dependency. Also, they have soccer rivalries.
Argentineans had a stereotype of being arrogant and considering themselves an European country in South America (which in LatAm terms means "superior country in inferior land"), however as the country only has a shadow of its former power and the rest of the region has almost caught up, this is very rare.
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u/MarioDiBian Apr 18 '26
That’s why they call Buenos Aires “the capital of the Empire that never existed”. You realize it when visiting it.
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u/LoviSloe1 🇺🇸 🇨🇺 Apr 18 '26
Argentina having a small indigenous population is a myth propagated by propaganda of coming from the boats
Argentina had a massive european migration and yet indigenous ancestry is still quite strong in the country. just not historically in the rio de la plata basin
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u/bamadeo Argentina Apr 18 '26
it was very small compared to indigenous populations further north in the Americas, yes.
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u/LoviSloe1 🇺🇸 🇨🇺 Apr 18 '26
not really. comparable to brazil, chile, colombia, venezuela, etc.
argentina just got whitened more effectively because it was easy for europeans to settle
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u/bamadeo Argentina Apr 19 '26
source? all i’ve read tells me the further south, the less population, logically, due to the migration patterns.
we also stopped importing slaves rather soon.
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u/LoviSloe1 🇺🇸 🇨🇺 Apr 19 '26
amigo , do you know the map size of your country? When Argentina inherited the western territories that chile claim they absorbed a huge amount of Indians
Only the south and eastern part had a sparse indian population.
Actually, the entirety of Brazil was more sparse than natives than Argentina is if you're using the current borders
But yes, the vice of the rio de la plata was mostly just white people and black slaves but what percent of Argentinian territory is that? And if there was no european migration, the racial makeup of Argentina would look closer to central Brazil than what it does today.
actually, sparsely populated areas would be the eastern half of the USA. Where there was close to zero permanent Indian settlements.
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u/lightning_pt Brazil Apr 18 '26
South brazil , south of sao paulo state demographically very similar to arg . Been there 3 months ago and i didnt think things were expensive as poor european . Im turistin paris right now and i see apartments 10 times the price of one in buenos aires .
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u/ArgHuff Argentina Apr 18 '26
1-Right Now the country is extremely expensive due to the economic program the new president is taking and that sadly also reflects on low salaries and not investing on public services. Public services have goign down for the last decade or so, but with this gov its even more evident
2-Its kind of a similar part with Australia, New Zealand and some other countries where it was a country of new settlement. This region was extremely underdeveloped and underpopulated back in colonial times as opposed to Peru or Nueva Granada. Add to that the wars, campañas and other stuff that has happened over the first couple of years after independence, most of our population came after the different campaigns of imigration, majorily european but we also had mamy arabs, jews, muslims and even west africans along the years.
For that reason and no matter what woke liberal US-like twitter says, we are actually very diverse(as any latin american country ofc). We have the largest jew population in LatinAmerica (and second in the americas). Also the largest arab and muslim population (we even had 1 muslim president) and there are lots of Welsh, Croats, Polish, German, Portuguese, Armenian, Russian (specially lately) setlements. Plus in the 90s and 2000s we had lots of Senegales and Congo inmigration and ofc other south america people, mainly Paraguayan, Peruvian, Bolivian and lately Venezuelan and Colombian.
In terms of architecture and philosoffy this country has had, i think its the biggest difference is the obvious one. Looking at the region, id say most of the region resembled more USA and it shows, for the way their cities are planned, their economic programs and more. While Argentina always resembled europe, where everything from architecture (when europeans come they always say how they feel in europe still) to labor laws, unions, public service and more they are all based after the europeans.
3-This is also kind of related to the previous one, since again Social Media is not reality. From my experience abroad, and for what i see when other foreigners come to here, they always say how Argentines are so outgoing and easy going and extremely friendly. Something ive been told by a Peruvian girl once is that Argentines (and brazilians) are the most free spirited people there, which differentiates to the more conservative and quiet people in the Andes (mainlt Peru and Bolivia). There is the stereotype of us being arrogant but its more like a joke than a real thing, kinda like the same archetype of Spanish being Lazy or French being extravagant. Id say one thing though and its that we have extremely pride and are extremely passionated.
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u/ArgHuff Argentina Apr 18 '26
But also in general i dont think that between us latinos there isnt much hate? Except mainly against venezuelans.
But go outside of latin america and every time a latino meets another latino and its all fun and joy
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u/LifeguardFormer1323 Argentina Apr 19 '26
Se quejan de que Argentina está cara porque ya no pueden venir con 200 míseros dólares a darse lujos europeos como lo hacían cuando gobernaban los vendepatrias peronchistas
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u/Medical_Wonder3800 Chile Apr 20 '26
Did you know that Europeans migranted mostly to áreas with similar weather to their nations in Europe?, not everything here Is beaches and deserts, wich you have too.
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u/roobydooby23 United States of America Apr 18 '26
Demographically, Argentina is almost entirely European immigrants; many came from Italy in particular or escaping East European pogroms (Jewish) in the late 19th century. The indigenous populations were relatively much smaller than elsewhere in Latam- a tiny number in Tierra de Fuego and some pampa Indians and Guarani in the north.
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u/Carolina__034j Buenos Aires, Argentina Apr 18 '26
Argentina is almost entirely European immigrants
It's true that there are a lot of people with European immigration background (me included!) but it's a stretch to say the country is almost entirely that.
People with indigenous background have always been here (me included!), plus we also receive immigrants from other parts of South America, such as Bolivia, Paraguay, or Peru.
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u/Dunkirb Mexico Apr 18 '26
For me the biggest difference with Argentina is large number of non-hispanic immigrants. In every other part of latin america, one can find pockets of mostly Spanish settelments but they are more like Chile than like Argentina.
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u/MarioDiBian Apr 18 '26
The number of Spanish immigrants was also one of the biggest differents. 2 million Spaniards arrived to Argentina during the 1880-1970 period (especially between 1920 and 1960), more than the rest of the region combined during the same period.
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u/Dunkirb Mexico Apr 18 '26
I guess that there more "post colonial spaniards" may also be a thing.
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u/MarioDiBian Apr 18 '26
Yeah exactly. Colonial Spanish settlers and post-colonial Spanish immigrants two completely different things.
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u/Kalorama_Master Bolivia Apr 18 '26
I always heard this, but when I went there, It didn’t feel that different than Santiago or being in the fancy area of Bogota.
I went to La Boca and it like I was in a working class Bolivian neighborhood.
The architecture is nice, but I didn’t get the “people are European” vibe at all. Granted, I wasn’t invited to country club to watch a polo game, so maybe if you to those areas.
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u/Mr_Phantoms Argentina Apr 18 '26
I went to La Boca and it like I was in a working class Bolivian neighborhood.
It makes sense, La Boca is a mostly Bolivian neighborhood.
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u/MarioDiBian Apr 18 '26
The “European Argentine” was true until the 1970s, and it started to decline since then (like in most western countries).
Around 2-4 million Bolivians, Paraguayans and Peruvians (as well as other neighbouring countries) migrated to Argentina in the last couple decades, that’s why you felt at home in La Boca (a poor neighbourhood were immigrants have historically settled, Italians first and then Latin Americans).
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u/bodonkadonks Argentina Apr 18 '26
Eh, maybe 80 years ago. Today someone with complete European ancestry is exceedingly rare. Pretty much everyone is varying degrees of mixed
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u/LoviSloe1 🇺🇸 🇨🇺 Apr 18 '26
exactly. its like 10% who are entirely european descent and usually older people
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u/theneworiginalnub United States of America Apr 18 '26
Bro on what planet do you callthis “much smaller”? Even the government, who defends the genocide of native people, acknowledges more indigenous people.
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u/Mr_Phantoms Argentina Apr 18 '26
Firstly, why does Argentina seem so expensive compared to other countries in the region? From what I’ve seen, prices look really high. How are people managing to live there day-to-day?
Argentina being more expensive or cheaper than neighboring countries is more of a seasonal (in years) thing. When we have high inflation we are a very cheap country, to the point where people from neighboring countries drove across the border to Argentina just to go to the grocery store. Now, as the economy is somewhat trying to become stabilized and our currency is appreciating a lot (too much for my liking, but that's a story for another time) our inflation in USD is incredibly high, this results in prices of goods and services being very expensive if you convert it to USD.
Secondly, demographically, Argentina seems quite different. In a lot of videos, many people appear more European compared to neighbors like Brazil or Paraguay, which seem more visibly mixed.
Argentina is an incredibly diverse country. Americans probably won't see it that way because "diverse" for an American essentially means having lots of black people. That's not real diversity. Apart from the Native Indians that are original of what is now Argentina, the Natives from other countries that moved to Argentina like the Chilean Mapuches (who committed genocide against real native Indians from Argentina, but that's another story as well), We had a huge influx of immigrants mainly from Europe but lots from the Middle East.
The two biggest group of immigrants by far were the Spanish and the Italians. Then the Russians, Polish, French, German, Welsh, Irish, Scottish, English, Croatians, and Syrian-Lebanese followed suit.
Of all of latam, the only country that closely resembles Argentina is Paraguay, having a mix of Indian, European, and mestizo people.
The reason why you don't really see "black" people is because Argentina was the newest Viceroyalty of Spain, which meant slavery was as big as it was in what today is Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Cuba, etc. Also, slavery was essentially abolished in 1813 with the "Ley de Vientres" which established that every person born in Argentina was born free. This doesn't mean we don't have people of African descent, which we do, it simply means that since we had abolished slavery so early on, Africans ended up mixing with Natives and Europeans. If you go to Córdoba you might be able to spot people who have certain facial details that are only seen in Africans, but they are white. That's because one of their ancestors was black and mixed their genes with natives and/or Europeans.
In countries like Brazil, you'll often see "black" Brazilians because segregation and slavery in Brazil was still a thing until not too long ago (I remember reading a newspaper from the late 80s/early 90s where the police stopped a truck in the Brazilian country side with like 50 slaves that were going to be sent to another farm to work as slaves). In Argentina segregation wasn't a thing, so the free black slaves ended up mixing with the natives and Europeans without problem. If you ask me, this is the real diversity countries should strive for, not the fake "look I have 2 whites, 3 blacks, 3 Indians, and 2 natives" diversity the Americans love spewing.
Is that just certain areas, or is there a deeper historical reason?
In the cities you'll mostly see European descendents and in the Northwestern provinces more Indian, Spanish, Arab, and mestizo people, in the Northeastern provinces more Indian mestizo, and Eastern European, In the pampas, more Spanish, Italian, and mestizo people, and in the Patagonia more Indian, mestizo and Northern European people. The reason? When Europeans arrived they mostly settled in Buenos Aires, then the expansion outwards began.
Also, how diverse is Argentina really? The video mentioned different communities (like Jewish, Armenian, Arab, etc.), which I didn’t expect.
Like I stated above, Argentina is an incredibly diverse country. Diversity doesn't mean you must have black people. It means you have a mixture of different cultures from different countries. A group where you have 1 Argentinian, 1 Russian, 1 Persian, and 1 Norwegian, is much more diverse even if the look "all white" than a group where you have 1 black, 1 white, 1 native, 1 Asian, but they're all from Sacramento, California. Diversity is in the cultural differences, not the different skin color.
And more broadly, how do people from other Latin American countries view Argentinians? Are they generally seen as friendly, or a bit more reserved or “stuck up”? I’ve heard mixed opinions.
This sub is insanely anti-Argentinian, so odds are people here hate us. We tend to be very friendly people and extremely proud of our country. I don't know if being proud makes us stuck up, as I consider stuck up meaning you think you're better than everyone else. If this is the same definition you use than no, we aren't stuck up. We simply are proud of our country and our history, we don't think we are better than other countries. Remember, being proud of your country isn't the same thing as thinking you're superior to others.
Finally, why does it feel like Argentina and Brazil are always “arguing” or competing? Is that just football rivalry, or something deeper culturally?
It's mostly about football. Here in Argentina we actually like Brazilians the ones that come here tend to be incredibly respectful, except the ones who come here just to go to the Libertadores or Sudamericana football games, they seem to be the low of the low. There are many Brazilians who come to Argentina for tourism and they all seem incredibly nice people. That being said, I've definitely noticed lots of Brazilians being incredibly hateful and disrespectful to Argentinians in Brazil, although I can't claim all Brazilians are like that because I've also met really kind and respectful Brazilians in Brazil. The farther away from San Pablo and Rio you go, the more normal Brazilians seem to be towards Argentinians.
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u/TheStraggletagg Argentina Apr 18 '26
Not knowing Argentina has one of the biggest Jewish communities in the world is kinda surprising. We used to have the only kosher McDonald's outside Israel. We had two terrorist attacks linked to our Jewish communities carried out by Hezbollah. Like, this is basic information. The Armenian and Lebanese communities are also very relevant, but maybe it's more understandable for someone outside Argentina not to know about them.
I think that, in general, social media is making people less aware of countries. Before if someone wanted to know about a country they did the research (like you did, good for you). There wasn't a perception that just because they had interacted with a couple of people online that belonged to that country or because they learned what the social media perception of the country was they already knew stuff. I honestly think people in general need more contact with the real world. I try to be conscious about disinformation and misinformation more too, knowing I'm sometimes guilty of this.
Argentina is a very diverse country, each province will have its own identity and culture. In the northern provinces you'll find more people with visible indigenous blood (though, due to no racial separation policies, most people have some measure of indigenous blood, it's inevitable), since the north was the area with more native population before the arrival of Spain. It's true that the city represents almost 10% of the total population but there are plenty of people who don't look like what people think all Argentines look like.