What is the attitude towards European immigrants in Latin America?

Question

Many Americans (US citizens, I mean) are critical of Latin immigrants in the US, so my question is... I know there are a lot of US citizens in Latin America, but I'm more concerned about Europeans. Does the US populist anti-Latin stance affect people from Europe who live in Latin America? All views welcomed.

Answer 1

White European immigrants are looked on favourably. As a previous post mentioned Latin American society is stratified with the caucasian as top dog and mestizo (mixed European and Amerindian) below them and muletos (black) at the bottom. It is probably the Italian immigrants that made Buenos Aires as sophisticated as it is and the Germanic immigrants that industrialised the southern cone. The ability to speak Spanish is essential (or Portuguese for Brazil) and an awareness of Catholic culture is helpful.

Answer 2

most europeans, not eastern, have money and are normally skilled workers. therefore whatever country they emmigrate to they are bringing cash and skill along with them. unskilled poor people tend to stay at home. i have many friends and associates who have emmigrated but i have never even heard of anyone emmigrating to latin america so i would say it must be happening on a very small scale.

Answer 3

You will be looked upon favorably in Latin America.  Latin Americans love everything that is white and believe that half a persons beauty is gained if they have white skin.  It doesn't take much of an effort to notice how racially stratified Latin America is.  Considering that "Latino" or "Hispanic" is not a race and thus all people, wether they be of African or Asian heritage, can be considered Latino if they were brought up within that culture.  

As for immigrants changing the face of cities such as LA, Miami, NY, etc in the United States... the European immigrants never learned the language of Native Americans and THEY never "assimilated" into the Native American Culture, so that "travel expert"  needs to learn a thing or two.  The southwest was a part of Mexico which in turn means that MEXICANS have ALWAYS been there.  It's NOT sad that those cities are the way they are, what's SAD is that you have people believing that immigrants take jobs away when in reality, WE in the USA EXPLOIT the natural resources of third world countries... this wave of immigrants is OUR own doing.  

In short, move to latin america... it's a beautiful place.

Answer 4

I can speak for the British and Australian community in South America, especially Lima and Santiago. There is a large ex-pat community and they are seen as very professional and are well treated. Sadly, the latin immigrants going to the US are in a majority of cases, poor people who go looking for a better future. Europeans emmigrating to the US or Latin America are mostly professionales going to work there and these jobs are highly paid and therefore are above average citizens, socially and economically speaking. In places like Peru, european immigrants are seen very highly and even admired as they have a higher education and a better cultural background. However that was not the case at the beginning of the century, where europeans (mainly italians and spanish) came to Latin America (and the US) running away from the war and therefore came as poor people. These immigrants worked very hard and now that the third generation is living in America, they are prosperous people.

I think that the negative attitude of some americans towards latin immigrants come mainly from the fact that some are illegal citizens and take their jobs and dont speak english and some americans may think that they are changing or re-shaping their country. If you go to places like Miami, New Jersey or LA, the amount of latin people living there is amazing and sadly, they have changed the atmosphere in those cities. Though some immigrants have given a lot to the US (economically and socially) there are still some who are very poor, illiterate and with no education.

Answer 5

They are looked favorably. Most of them are affluent, though older generations may struggle a bit more due to little assimilation. A lot of people from Latin America have European ancestry, and so they will be accepted favorably. This is specially true of bigger cities, and countries such as Argentina and Uruguay, where 90%+ of the population has European ancestry.