Settlers, not migrants: Anne Gustavsson, Jenny Ingridsdotter, ‘Swedish Migration to Northern Argentina: The Conditions and Possibilities of Settlement in the Early Twentieth Century’, Scandinavian Studies, 97, 4, 2025, pp. 1-25 | settler colonial studies blog

Settlers, not migrants: Anne Gustavsson, Jenny Ingridsdotter, ‘Swedish Migration to Northern Argentina: The Conditions and Possibilities of Settlement in the Early Twentieth Century’, Scandinavian Studies, 97, 4, 2025, pp. 1-25

07Oct25

Abstract: We examine how the settlement of Europeans in the Americas was shaped by colonial processes. We specifically discuss the role of Swedish migrants in relation to processes of settlement in the border regions between Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia during the beginning of the twentieth century. We focus on migrants who settled in different parts of northern Argentina, becoming small-scale farmers or cattle ranchers. Based on an analysis of migration narratives and archival work, we compare settler strategies and socioeconomic positions and discuss how the migrants were affected by structural factors, such as state policies on immigration and land tenure, as well as contrasting models for agriculture and livestock production. We find that although conditioned by these factors, their settlement differed in terms of premigration networks, community building, type of mobility, and settlement depictions. We argue that in our cases, migrants became settlers, however the complicity with colonizing agents is dissimilar.

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