Proletorianisation or Patagonia: Reassessing the Rationale for the Afrikaner Migration to Argentina, 1902-06

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Periodical article

Title:	Proletorianisation or Patagonia: Reassessing the Rationale for the Afrikaner Migration to Argentina, 1902-06
Author:	Fig, David
Year:	1991
Periodical:	Social Dynamics
Volume:	17
Issue:	2
Period:	December
Pages:	103-125
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	South Africa Argentina
Subjects:	Afrikaners emigrants Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Urbanization and Migration History and Exploration
External link:	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02533959108458514
Abstract:	Patagonia in the late 19th century was a frontier region of Argentina. Stripped of its native inhabitants after brutal repression by the Argentine military forces, the area was opened up for colonial settlement. The Argentine authorities recognized Afrikaners as suitable recruits for colonial settlement in Patagonia and, starting in 1902, groups of settlers made their way to South America. The majority of emigrants were dispossessed Cape landowners and tenant farmers, who chose to move to Patagonia to avoid proletarianization in the South African mining towns. However, the Afrikaner community in Argentina did not flourish, and was finally broken by the economic depression that started in 1929. With the resurgence of right-wing nationalism amongst Afrikaners in South Africa in the 1930s, moves to repatriate surviving South American families gained momentum. Of the few who remained in Patagonia, links with South Africa were virtually erased by cultural assimilation. App., bibliogr., notes, ref.