A01=Benjamin Bryce
Author_Benjamin Bryce
Category=JBFH
Category=JBFM
Category=JBFN
Category=JBSL
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_new_release
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Product details
- ISBN 9781469695358
- Dimensions: 25 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 07 Apr 2026
- Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
Argentina has been one the most important destinations for international labor migrants in the modern world. But while it was long imagined as a nation of immigrants, a closer look at its history and policies reveals that the country’s doors were only open to certain people. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, officials developed a long list of grounds for exclusion that deterred many people from ever boarding a ship to the country. Travelers who did go to Argentina were frequently barred at ports of entry on account of race, health, or disability.
Tracing the attempts of European, Asian, and Middle Eastern migrants to enter Argentina, Benjamin Bryce shows how the modern state worked to privilege white supremacy and expansion over diversity and magnanimity. As Argentine officials, politicians, and influential thinkers envisioned their country’s future, they tried to define the ideal citizens who would live, work, vote, and reproduce in Argentina—and the characteristics of those who would not. Anyone deemed unhealthy or disabled was labeled unproductive or a potential burden on the state. Race often shaped notions of health and productivity and therefore determined who was welcome. Bryce’s thorough analysis of immigration exclusions reconceptualizes Argentina’s long-accepted reputation as a haven for newcomers.
Tracing the attempts of European, Asian, and Middle Eastern migrants to enter Argentina, Benjamin Bryce shows how the modern state worked to privilege white supremacy and expansion over diversity and magnanimity. As Argentine officials, politicians, and influential thinkers envisioned their country’s future, they tried to define the ideal citizens who would live, work, vote, and reproduce in Argentina—and the characteristics of those who would not. Anyone deemed unhealthy or disabled was labeled unproductive or a potential burden on the state. Race often shaped notions of health and productivity and therefore determined who was welcome. Bryce’s thorough analysis of immigration exclusions reconceptualizes Argentina’s long-accepted reputation as a haven for newcomers.
Benjamin Bryce is associate professor of history at the University of British Columbia.
