The Requirements of Entry for Immigrants from the Spanish Diplomatic Perspective (1916-1919)

Abstract

This paper examines the consequences of the Decrees of April 26 and October 3, 1916, by which the Argentine government issued the article 32 of the Immigration Law of 1876. Since then, the article imposed stricter requirements on everyone that wanted to arrive to the country. The resistance of the foreign diplomats and the shipping companies deferred the application of the Decree. Nevertheless, due to the bloody events of January 1919 known as the "Tragic Week", the government of Yrigoyen decided to enforce it again. The reenactment of the Decrees of 1916 provoked, one more time, the reaction of several embassies, the Spanish among them.