Is this Buenos Aires? The new Europeans

[PhilinBSAS]

Argentine Indy well presented video suggests that just winging and moaning isn't universally shared by all Ex-Pats.

http://www.argentinaindependent.com...edia/video-the-new-europeans-in-buenos-aires/

Maybe there is a cycle with some ex-pats just getting nostalgic about the land of their birth or the next nirvana and wanting move/return to home thinking that it was/will be so much better. "Grass is always greener" type of thing and its the human condition at least for some never ever be happy wherever they end up.

So that there a "shelf life" for Ex-Pats and who haven't thoroughly integrated within local culture after a certain amount of time just end up bitter and twisted?

Of course that is a function of a lot of things both locally and distant including instability, employment etc. Glimpses of the press back from home can be misleading or seductive

My point is the video quotes the cliche Buenos Aries is a city of immigrants. So in the waves of immigrants who have come before when did they stop thinking of themselves as "ex-pats" and clinging to the idea of that return ticket back or on to the next land of milk and honey?

Judging on the number of Italian and Gallego and even Irish, Scottish Welsh and English associations etc etc in Buenos Aires then maybe never! And surely some went back - who had the means to do so. Maybe the collective longing to be recognised as some sort of Southern Hemisphere European Capital reflected in the City architecture was part of that. Numerically Portenos dont seem to value their latin american heritage as much at least until recently it seems?

Currently I'm back in London which is great but looking forward to getting back later in the year to enjoy the positive side of another great World City. And Ill continue to read expat postings as many are insightful, thoughtful and useful

Short piece but thought provoking I hope you agree!

http://www.argentinaindependent.com...edia/video-the-new-europeans-in-buenos-aires/

Anyone we know appearing?

 

[fuccolini]

jaja yes of course, there is tons of potential, the dane is right though with all the great ideas you can't buy a bouquet of flowers because implementing these ideas are basically impossible.

 

[nicoenarg]

Actually a decent video. Whoever the journalist was tried to make it as balanced as they could. I disagreed with a couple of things, but contrary to my nature , I will hold my criticism.

 

[Crema Americana]

I don't think this batch of expats compare anything at all to the Spanish, Germans, and Italians that came 50 or 100 years ago. The people in Europe were literally starving, there were dictatorships and persecutions, extreme poverty... what was there really to go back to? And I'm sure even then there were complaints. Many still hold onto their heritage.

While not quite the same thing, my father-in-law's family came from Russia to Paraguay by boat... when they arrived they found nothing. Civilization hadn't arrived yet. The local people didn't wear shoes or know how to make cheese and crime was rampant since there was no law. They wondered "where the hell are we?" But they made the best of it, they created their ethnic settlements, built houses in the style of their homeland, brought whatever tools and knowledge they had to make what they needed to survive and settled. There wasn't much choice.

The situation is much different now. Europe is not worse off than Argentina and I'm afraid most potential immigrants wouldn't be that impressed to put up with what Argentina has to offer (lower wages, lower standards of living, less choice and quality of goods, a difficult government, etc.) The immigrants that are arriving now in numbers are from Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru and other MERCOSUR countries (some Chinese, too.) People immigrate from lower standard of living places to higher quality... unless they're looking for a specific opportunity. For instance, opening a French restaurant in Buenos Aires is probably easier than doing the same in Paris. There's less competition and prestige, as the chef in the video said, nobody here really asks what school you graduated from and since quality is generally not as spectacular as Paris itself, success comes easier. That's not to say it's not fantastic restaurant, or that it couldn't compete in Paris, but Buenos Aires is a smaller bowl that offers those types of opportunities (if you can navigate the red tape roadblock of owning a business.) I've always felt that Argentina has much potential for entrepreneurship in that regard.... the bar is often set rather low.

 

[John.St]

... the video quotes the cliche Buenos Aries is a city of immigrants. So in the waves of immigrants who have come before when did they stop thinking of themselves as "ex-pats" and clinging to the idea of that return ticket back or on to the next land of milk and honey?

The immigrants in the 19xx's were called 'golondrinas' (swallows), they moved back and forth between their country of origin and Argentina.