Immigration Legislation

immigration legislation

Argentine legislation grants equal rights and obligations to natives and foreigners. This is how our Constitution maintains it in its article 20 when it states: "Foreigners enjoy all the civil rights of citizens in the territory of the Nation; they can exercise their industry, commerce and profession, they are not obliged to admit citizenship, nor to pay taxes extraordinary forced

During the presidency of Nicolás Avellaneda, in 1876, Law no. 817, the first to regulate immigration and colonization. The law consists of 121 chapters, half of them dedicated to immigration, and the other half to colonization. In 1903, when Law No. 4167 "on the sale and lease of fiscal land" was sanctioned, the part corresponding to colonization was repealed.

By means of the Law, the General Department of Immigration was created, dependent on the Ministry of the Interior (art.1); giving the Executive Power the power to appoint agents in those parts of Europe or America that it deems convenient to promote immigration to the Argentine Republic, whose function will be "to develop continuous propaganda, provide free reports to interested parties, certify on the conduct and industrial attitude of the immigrant, intervene in transport contracts and, in some cases, pay their tickets" (art.4).

The Executive may also appoint immigration commissions in the points of the country interested in the problem, with the function of accommodating, placing and transferring immigrants (art.8). Labor and placement offices will collaborate with the Buenos Aires Immigration Department and with local commissions to meet the requests of "teachers, artisans, day laborers or farmers that are made to them" and "seek advantageous conditions for the placement of immigrants ( art.10) "in the art, trade or industry to which they preferred to dedicate themselves (art.48). The Department of Immigration must "tend by all means at its disposal to promote and facilitate the internment of immigrants in the Interior (art.3).

In article 12, the law defines an immigrant as "every foreign laborer, artisan, industrialist, farmer or teacher, who, being under sixty years of age and accrediting his morality and aptitudes, arrives in the republic to settle there, in steamships or sailing, paying second or third class passage, or having the trip paid for by the Nation, the provinces or private companies, protectors of immigration and colonization.

All immigrants, provided they "sufficiently prove their good behavior and their aptitude for any industry, art or useful trade", enjoyed the right to be housed and maintained at the expense of the State during the five days following their disembarkation (art.45). In addition, the Public Power was also in charge of transferring him to the place in the country that he chose as his residence. On the other hand, when the immigrant so desired, he could obtain employment through the Labor Office.

In case of going to the interior of the country, and if there was an Immigration Commission in the place of destination, it had to grant the immigrant accommodation and food for a period of up to ten days.

The chapters referring to Colonization were seven. The first of them created the Office of Lands and Colonies, a body in charge of centralizing state action. The law provided for various colonization systems:

• Direct colonization by the State in national territories and in lands ceded by the provincial governments.
• Indirect colonization through private companies on lands already measured and divided, or in places that had not been exploited.
• Colonization by individual initiative.
• Colonization of the provincial governments stimulated by the national government.
• Colonization by individuals protected by the government.

Parallel to the action of promoting immigration by the State, the political and economic conditions in Argentina, especially after 1880, served as a stimulus for the massive arrival of immigrants.