NYTimes: Immigration Wasn’t an Issue in Argentina. Until It Became One.

Immigrants that come to work, pay taxes and contribute to society are welcome. Those that come to live off government assistance, usurp land, and steal electricity are not the folks that Argentina needs, and Milei would do well to make more efforts to keep them out.


"En la villa no se paga la luz"
 
"An Ipsos poll in 2025 found that just 4 percent of respondents in Argentina cited immigration control among their top three concerns, much lower than the 17 percent figure globally."
I meet so many people with a nephew in new York or a son in Madrid, etc.. I can't find the graph at the moment but the amount of people emigrating from Argentina is often close, and per year sometimes exceeding immigrants. Thats not the situation in Europe or the USA, it's a brain drain problem. Cutting funding for science and education isn't going to help.
You might envy people living in villas, with their free intermittent power, but they're small potatoes.
 
MarshallE said:
Immigrants that come to work, pay taxes and contribute to society are welcome. Those that come to live off government assistance, usurp land, and steal electricity are not the folks that Argentina needs, and Milei would do well to make more efforts to keep them out.


"En la villa no se paga la luz"
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Not just the villa. My suegro lives in a small town in San Luis and inherited a lot of undeveloped land. When my wife (his daughter) inquired to the municipality to convert some of the land into a residential barrio, they explained that they couldn't afford to put in any new services because only 10% of the town pay their bills. Entrenched socialism and corruption has completely distorted the concept of collective progression through governance and shared resources. It boggles the mind how this country functions at all sometimes...
 
camel said:

Immigration Wasn’t an Issue in Argentina. Until It Became One.​

Argentina has often stood out for its openness to immigration. Under President Javier Milei, it has started to crack down.


Alternate link:
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One has to be very wary of the NYT Opinion page these days. However, Emma Bubola seems reasonable. Love how she ended the opinion piece, quoting a waiter at a Bolivian restaurant.

Also, and I quote from the piece: Migration “has never been a sensitive or difficult topic for Argentina,” said Diego Morales, a lawyer at the Center for Legal and Social Studies, a human rights and civil liberties watchdog. “They’re creating an internal enemy where there isn’t one.”
 
JMHarris said:
One has to be very wary of the NYT Opinion page these days. However, Emma Bubola seems reasonable. Love how she ended the opinion piece, quoting a waiter at a Bolivian restaurant.
Click to expand...
Yes One of has to be wary of most newspaper Opinion and Editorial articles. Yet this posted article is not in that section of the newspaper. It is not an opinion piece. It is not an outsider given an opinion platform, or a staff columnist or editor spouting wisdom from their chair. You pretending that it is opinion while hopeful that others will not actually read is dishonest.

Yes all reported news might the have some personal bias from the reporter, but in general you have to expect they are being objective as they gather the information and quotes. And even if the Times reporter you mentioned is new to Argentina, the others listed with the line "Lucía Cholakian Herrera and Daniel Politi contributed reporting." are well respected, with long time local experience, and also award winning
 
LuckyLuke said:
Not just the villa. My suegro lives in a small town in San Luis and inherited a lot of undeveloped land. When my wife (his daughter) inquired to the municipality to convert some of the land into a residential barrio, they explained that they couldn't afford to put in any new services because only 10% of the town pay their bills. Entrenched socialism and corruption has completely distorted the concept of collective progression through governance and shared resources. It boggles the mind how this country functions at all sometimes...
Click to expand...
So how is it that only 10% pays their bills? Are they 'behind on the payment' of an official account, getting subsidies from the government, or splicing a public line somehow? That seems like something the electric company would look into, if it concerned them.
When I say 'small potatoes', I'm thinking of my $16.000 monthly charge. I'm guessing the villas don't have air conditioners or big refrigerators running, or computers online all day. Meanwhile, Argentina's planning on building AI data centers. The 'stolen' electric is just such a piddling amount of the grid.
 
mageesa said:
So how is it that only 10% pays their bills? Are they 'behind on the payment' of an official account, getting subsidies from the government, or splicing a public line somehow? That seems like something the electric company would look into, if it concerned them.
When I say 'small potatoes', I'm thinking of my $16.000 monthly charge. I'm guessing the villas don't have air conditioners or big refrigerators running, or computers online all day. Meanwhile, Argentina's planning on building AI data centers. The 'stolen' electric is just such a piddling amount of the grid.
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Estimates of non-technical losses (stolen electricity) in Argentina are about $0.5 Billion US. Not really a piddling amount.
 
carride said:
Yes One of has to be wary of most newspaper Opinion and Editorial articles. Yet this posted article is not in that section of the newspaper. It is not an opinion piece. It is not an outsider given an opinion platform, or a staff columnist or editor spouting wisdom from their chair. You pretending that it is opinion while hopeful that others will not actually read is dishonest.

Yes all reported news might the have some personal bias from the reporter, but in general you have to expect they are being objective as they gather the information and quotes. And even if the Times reporter you mentioned is new to Argentina, the others listed with the line "Lucía Cholakian Herrera and Daniel Politi contributed reporting." are well respected, with long time local experience, and also award winning
Click to expand...
Yes, you are correct. I apologize for saying that the article was an opinion piece. Also, in no way did I mean to disparage the reporter Emma Bubola. And yes, the article was quite objective.
 
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