La Semana Trágica and the limitations of citizenship for Jewish migrants in Early 20th Century Argentina
Loading...
Date
2021-05
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The Ohio State University
Abstract
In her book, Forced Out and Fenced In: Immigration Tales From the Field, Professor of
Sociology at University of California Merced Tanya Maria Golash-Boza states: "Illegality is a
status people move in and out of," (Golash-Boza xi). Newer studies in immigration research
define legality and illegality as both societal and legal labels, as opposed to simply a legal one. A
debate that emerged in the early 1900s, the question of an individual's "belonging" somewhere
according to the law has evolved with the ever-changing conflicts, borders, and alliances that
govern the modern world. The issue of legality and national identity is one that has shaped the
narrative of Jewish people for centuries, and with the advent of this new social discourse, greatly
impacted their existence. For the most part, Jewish immigrants were able to arrive legally to Argentina en masse, so why is this study of immigration law important? Primarily because today's definitions of race
and nationality differ from those of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Argentine Jews
throughout history have been largely white and Eastern European, which at the time granted
them a measure of legality, but they were also Jews, designating them to a wholly unique space.
For immigrant Jews, this question of status was not entirely dictated by the state, but
rather originated from it. As described by Golash-Boza in Forced Out and Fenced In:
Immigration Tales From the Field, that sphere of legality extends beyond the people it primarily
refers to and additionally applies to the surrounding society. If one is legal then the others are
illegal. If one belongs then the others do not. It becomes a means of separation and "othering"
and alienation that is not unique to the Jewish experience but rather is universal to the immigrant
one.