Tag Archives for Chinese Argentine

Critique of the documentary ArgenChino

Screencap from ArgenChino.

I finally got a chance to watch Julia Reagan’s documentary ArgenChino, about Chinese supermarkets in Buenos Aires. It was a well-made film and a good introduction to the subject. I particularly liked the section on the looting of Chinese supermarkets and government protection of chain markets during the 2001 financial crisis; this was something that I (inexplicably) did not come across in my own research. I do, however, have a number of critiques to share:

1. The voice of the immigrants

As in many media depictions of the Chinese in Argentina, the voices of immigrants who do not speak Spanish are not heard. While we hear from some 1.5 generation immigrants who do speak Spanish, much of the ire against Chinese immigrants in Argentina is directed towards those who don’t speak the language. How do supermarket owners who haven’t spent most of their lives in the country feel about their businesses and about the xenophobia and racism directed against them?

2. Two factual errors and one glaring omission

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¿Cuántos chinos hay en la Argentina? Nadie sabe.

"¿Se puede enviarle dinero desde 20,000 km de distancia? ¡Claro que sí!"

Algo que me frustra de la investigación sobre los chinos en la Argentina es que no se sabe con certeza cuántas personas de ascendencia china viven en el país. Podríamos empezar con los datos en el censo nacional, que está plagado de problemas metodológicos.

El censo argentino de 2010 indica que hay 8,929 personas nacidas en China residentes en la Argentina, y 2,875 nacidas en Taiwán. El censo de 2001 encontró 4,184 personas nacidas en China (¡la cifra se duplicó dentro de 9 años!) y 3,511 nacidas en Taiwán. Según uno de mis entrevistados, después de la crisis económica de 2001, muchos taiwaneses se volvieron a Taiwán o se fueron a otros países, como EE.UU. Por otro lado, los chinos del continente todavía ven en la Argentina una oportunidad económica. Los datos reflejan el aumento en números de personas que inmigran a la Argentina para abrir supermercados y otras empresas. Algunos piensan quedarse para siempre, y otros quieren conseguir pasaportes argentinos para facilitar la emigración a otros países tal vez más atractivos. Continue reading →

How many Chinese people are there in Argentina? No one really knows.

"Can you send money to her in China from 20,000km away? Of course!"

One frustrating thing about doing research on the Chinese in Argentina is that no one really knows how many people of Chinese descent live in the country. We could start with the national census, which, as in many Latin American countries, is rife with methodological issues. (Then again, I live in a country that refuses to give Latinos a proper census category!)

The recently-released 2010 census results indicate that there are 8,929 persons born in China living in Argentina, and 2,875 persons born in Taiwan. The 2001 census found 4,184 persons born in China (a 2-fold increase in 9 years!) and 3,511 persons born in Taiwan. According to one of my respondents, after the Argentine economic crisis of 2001, many Taiwanese left the country, either returning to Taiwan or moving on to third countries such as the United States. Mainland Chinese, on the other hand, still see Argentina as an economic opportunity. The data reflect the growing numbers who are moving to Argentina to open supermarkets and other businesses. Some intend to stay permanently, while others are looking to get Argentine passports for easier entry to “more desirable” countries of settlement.

There may be many more Chinese immigrants in the country than the census indicates. According to an article that appeared in Clarín (the most widely read national newspaper) in 2009, there were around 70,000 immigrants of Chinese origin in Argentina that year; however, this article neither cites the source of the numbers nor indicates whether this figure includes both immigrants from both Mainland China and Taiwan.

Sassone and Mera (2006) speculate that new restrictions on immigration and the presence of undocumented immigrants may be the reason why there is no exact count of Chinese in the country. According to Argentine immigration authorities, in 2004 there were over 13,000 Chinese nationals illegally resident in the country, compared to fewer than 3,000 legal residents. A representative of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China has said that many Mainlanders enter Bolivia with valid visas and illegally cross into Argentina from there.

At least from the point of view of a researcher working on non-white immigrants to the country, another methodological issue with the Argentine census is that there is no way of tracking people of Chinese descent who were born in Argentina or other countries other than China or Taiwan. The lack of a race or ethnicity variable (which makes sense considering Argentina’s history of genocide and settlement) means that the second and subsequent generations of Chinese, Koreans, Bolivians, and other non-”white” groups become indistinguishable from the rest of the native-born Argentine population.

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