Migrations and Integration in the Area of Triple Frontier: Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay

Abstract

The Argentinean province of Misiones, originally populated by Tupí-Guaraní and Ge speakers, joined the Spanish colonial system through the Jesuit Settlements, a historical shared experience with what were to be the states of Brazil and Paraguay. After the expulsion of the Order in 1767, the area was depopulated and underwent a territorial reorganization in the form of the Extractive Front of yerba mate and wood. At the end of the nineteenth century, the first massive arrival of European immigrants arrived from different places. It began hence a long process of integration and assimilation colonization that is still on progress at the moment. All these cycles of immigration, colonization and territorial occupation were, in most cases, similar in the three states within the area of frontiers. Nowadays, the population movements respond to the integration dynamics of the Mercosur trade bloc, which has already led to countless changes of all kinds. This influence also put this marginal area at the heart of the concrete integration scene, with many communities in contact since time immemorial, replacing the confrontation ideology with a new regional culture.