Although at the end of November INDEC issued what it then called "definitive results" of the 2022 Census, data that in itself came with a delay warned by this media, this Monday the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses added a missing segment in the compendium published two months ago: the section on internal migration and immigration, which, as expected, shows a shift in the origin of the population that has arrived in the country in recent years.
Symbolically and in comparison to the 2010 census, the reduction of immigrants, today only 4.2% of the total population reported in the (one could say) "definitive false census" (46,234,830 is the total, of which almost 2 million are immigrants), seems to be a reflection of the crisis in crescendo, in this refractory Argentina.
At the same time, it is undeniable that the percentage drop in immigrants, as analyzed by the census report itself, has been persistent and marks a trend more than 100 years ago, when there was a historical peak recorded in 1914, which reported a percentage of foreigners seven times higher than the current one, which is at a historic low.
But as the 4.2% registered in the post-pandemic census repeats the number of immigrants from the 2001 census and only fell 0.2% compared to 2010, the novelty is undoubtedly different: the turnaround in the regions of origin of those who, from other countries, decided to bet right here.
As expected, the highest percentage of immigrants from non-bordering Latin American countries in Argentine history was found, or at least the one that can be reviewed since 1869, when the first national census was carried out.
On the podium of these arrivals is Venezuela, the third country that gave Argentina the most migrants in the last decade, behind Paraguay and Bolivia, historical "firsts" in this sense.
In percentages (always within the 1,941,862 foreigners registered, to be exact), arrivals from Paraguay were 27%, three percentage points below the 2010 census, when – on the contrary – there was an upward trend for that population; while Bolivia's accounted for 17.5%, two percentage points less than in 2010.
The long-awaited data for those concerned about demography was the number of Venezuelans that would come out of the national census, people who, at least as it was perceived in the metropolitan area, were exiled en masse from a very dramatic social and economic crisis, but - without real chances of foreseeing it - entered, unfortunately, into another.
According to INDEC, they account for 8.4% of the total number of immigrants. That's more than 163,000 people. The composition of the group is, unlike other groups in the country (but with a behavior similar to that of Colombians), young people, in their twenties, thirties and forties. Few (compared to those who come from neighboring countries) are children or adolescents and few (compared to the Chilean or Uruguayan population) have more than fifty.
To complete the "top ten", the fourth place of immigrants is held by Peru, followed by Chile, Uruguay, Italy, Brazil, Spain and Colombia.
As for the third place that Venezuela has today, it must be said that it is a place that has been giving surprises. While in 2010 it was occupied by Chile, in 2001 it had been occupied by Italy.
The Census and Immigrants with Distant Roots
It is striking that 23.5% of those coming from the region that does not border Argentina show almost double compared to 2010, when this group represented only 12.5% of immigrants. Continuing with the increases, the 2.4% of foreigners from the "rest of the world" (as the report calls those arriving from anywhere but Latin America and Europe), also had a slight increase, of 0.2%, an insignificant figure if it were not for the fact that it reverses the downward trend seen since the 70s.
Conversely, the immigrant groups that (always speaking percentage-wise) shrank are striking. One that seemed obvious with the runaway inflation of recent years is the population of neighboring countries, which nevertheless make up the majority group (65.9%) of the total number of immigrants, although the proportion fell by three percentage points compared to 2010.
But, in this sense, the important data is an unprecedented change in trend, since for the first time since this population statistic has been made, arrivals from neighboring countries were percentage-wise less than in the previous record. The number was always increasing, but now it has fallen.
Another drop is added, this time in the European population that decided to come to the country. In percentage terms, it was halved from what was reported in 2010. The downward trend has been seen since 1914, but the step has never been so steep as in this record, when from 16.5%, that group went to 8.3%, in 2022.
Educational level and migrations within the country, according to the 2022 census
The province and the city of Buenos Aires have the highest proportion of immigrants, compared to the other provinces. In fact, half of the foreigners registered in the census are in Buenos Aires territory, while CABA has almost 22%. It is followed by Mendoza with a comparatively derisory figure of less than 3.4%.
As for the level of education, it is not abruptly different from that of the general population. While the proportion of those who completed high school is almost identical (a quarter of both populations), residents with "up to high school incomplete" are 45%, five percentage points lower than that recorded for immigrants (50.5%). This means that in the third item, which is "higher education or incomplete university", there is also a slightly higher figure for locals: 29.8% versus 24.4%.
It should be remembered that the census for the first time was "de jure" and not "de facto", so it asked for the usual place of residence of people, regardless of where they were at the time of the census strategy.
The broad stroke of these data shows that almost 8 million people reported living in a jurisdiction other than the one in which they were born. It is 17.5% of the population in private homes. Women in this situation are 10% more than men.
Where do most of these people live? Neuquén, San Luis, Río Negro, Chubut have high percentages (between 20% and 30%), but the two on the podium are Santa Cruz, with 41.8%, and Tierra del Fuego. In the province at the "end of the world", 54.5% of the inhabitants were born in another part of Argentina.
To close, will there be more reports like the one released this Monday or is now "definitive"? Indec reported that there will be more. "Within the series of final results, specific topics such as education, gender identity, health or social welfare continue to be published."
PS