Mass Migration to Modern Latin America

Book excerpt: It is well known that large numbers of Europeans migrated overseas during the century preceding the Great Depression of 1930, many of them to the United States. What is not well known is that more than 20 percent of these migrants emigrated to Latin America, significantly influencing the demographic, economic, and cultural evolution of many areas in the region. Mass Migration to Modern Latin America includes original contributions from more than a dozen leading scholars of the innovative new Latin American migration history that has emerged in the past 20 years. Though the authors focus primarily on the nature and impact of mass migration to Argentina and Brazil from 1870-1930, they place their analysis in broader historical and comparative contexts. Each section of the book begins with personal stories of individual immigrants and their families, providing students with a glimpse of how the complex process of migration played out in various situations. This book demonstrates the crucial impact of the mass migrations of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries on the formation of some Latin American societies.