Milei dreams of massive immigration to the provinces

[MilHojas]

Milei dreams of massive immigration to the provinces. Experts say that’s unlikely - Buenos Aires Herald

Mining and energy demand massive investments, but fail to create direct employment on the same scale

buenosairesherald.com

 

[Ries]

the key words here are "Milei dreams".

 

[FrankPintor]

But but but then there would need to be schools and (shudder) even universities, public services and transport, roads and motorways…

I mean, it would be fantastic, Argentina is so fertile and productive it could probably support twice the current population (just a random guess of mine, I’ll ask my AI about this), but chainsawing away at the state isn’t going to do it.

And most likely immigrants are unlikely to be the same ethnicity as porteños, no problem for me, but Milei has encouraged the nasties to come out from under their rocks.

 

[Ries]

As the article points out, milei has lost more jobs than the most optimistic projection of new jobs from these "investors".
many of these jobs are initial construction, and not permanent.
many of the better paying jobs, that would justify moving, require things like machining or welding skills, crane or heavy equipment operation skills, chemical engineering or technician skills.
all of which require 2 years minimum technical training in schools Cristina built, and milei is choking to death with budget cuts and employee layoffs.
currently multinationals are closing steel mills, and factories in Argentina, because $1000 usd a month for skilled union labor is "too high".
I am not holding my breath.

 

[MarshallE]

It would be good for Argentina to decentralize, too much is getting sucked into BA at the expense of the rest of the country

 

[Ries]

It would be good for Argentina to decentralize, too much is getting sucked into BA at the expense of the rest of the country

Maybe before Menem got rid of all the railroads...
or Milei privatized the 2 lane highways...
In reality, just like Southern California is the largest manufacturing center of the USA, BA is the logical place for industry, logistics, and wholesalers, and in general, a population of a measly 40 million doesnt really require "decentralizing".
People in the country have gone to BA for jobs, education, culture, and purchasing since Argentina was founded as a nation 200 odd years ago, and its unlikely Catamarca or Neuquen is going to rush in and replace it in almost any category.

Assuming there were better, actually maintained large scale controlled access roads, we would see some increase in suburbanisation and the flourishing of smaller towns, but the current government is headed in the exact opposite direction.
Dwight Eisenhower, where are you when Argentina needs you?

(he created the interstate highway system in the United States in the late 1950s, pretty much from whole cloth)

 

[SlowWalker]

It would be good for Argentina to decentralize, too much is getting sucked into BA at the expense of the rest of the country

Agree.
People need to move to where the jobs are.

 

[Ries]

thats why people have been moving from tiny towns in the provincias to greater Buenos Aires for 150 years.
40% of all the jobs in the country are in the BA area. And most of the good paying jobs are too.
There are already plenty of unemployed or underemployed people in places like Catamarca, and they would be happy to get jobs in mining. There are currently around 3000 people employed in mining in the provincia of Catamarca, out of a population of 430,000.
Assuming the investors double that number in the next ten years, we are not going to see anything justifying many people moving to the province. Its similar in most of the provincias.

 

[SlowWalker]

I guess we can agree to disagree.
It's interesting to see how pipelines, mines, ports, etc provide jobs elsewhere in the world but not here.
In Canada, East Coasters would do FIFO rosters or relocate to Alberta for the construction of the oil sands, during Gold Rushes, or a cycle everyone floods to Texas etc for shale drilling, when its bust they go home. In Australia, you have construction of sites, then operations and support, and maintenance crews that travel site to site for shutdowns. These remote sites also support towns and cities. Provide injections of hundreds of millions to over billions to local economies.

But for some reason, in Argentina that appears not to be the case. /s (sarcasm)

These jobs are also stable, with pensions, benefits etc, great rosters for those that don't mind and provide long term jobs for those involved in operations and big money for those involved in construction. I have spoken to individuals who were around during construction of existing operations.