More yanquis for Buenos Aires?

I guess it could be true.

Two more stories came in over the transom today regarding the phenomenon and its accompanying reportage: this one from Reuters ...and this one from Bill Bonner who has developed a lot of expertise regarding Argentina (he owns a ranch in Salta and his son, Will Bonner, is the head blogger what's in charge at Discovering Buenos Aires.)

The graphic to the left links to Taos Turner's examination of the recent Clarín article and video on the same meme. My post about a possible "second wave" of expats to Argentina mentions two international blog posts that seemed to have lit the fuse as to the Argentine media's renewed fascination with the subject. But like Taos wrote, "Every six months or so local newspapers like Clarín and La Nación write stories about foreigners living in Argentina."

The Reuters and the Bill Bonner articles came in about the same time as I was speaking today with Fred of Fourpoint Report. Fred was in a television studio today recording a program with María Laura Santillán of "Argentina Para Armar" on TN.

Fred was part of a panel discussion with an Argentine expert on immigration and four other yanquis (prominently including Martin Frankel of Expat Connection.) I'll let you know about airing times when I find out.

I've been suspicious, however, about this latest trend toward exploring the foreigners (not all yanquis) that are supposedly flocking to Buenos Aires and Argentina in general in order to escape the recent economic crisis.

On March 4, two big blogposts hit the ether: from gawker.com and from blackbookmag.com ...those posts, to my mind, generated the current stir.

The current interest in the press is probably just more of the same-old, same-old ...except this time with even less good reporting and, probably, just a tie-in to the widely reported economic crises in the US (something that impresses the average Argentine as much as yanquis moving to Argentina.)

But I can't seem to shake the notion that this time it's different.

This recent interest shown in the Buenos Aires media strikes me as a sea change in the attitudes of people in Buenos Aires (and, to a slightly lesser degree, Argentines in general) toward the foreigners that almost crowd certain corners of Capital Federal.

First, the fact that the US could be suffering economically surprises the average citizen here. Secondly, the very idea that yanquis might be fleeing the US because of the current straits is almost unimaginable. Third, for US citizens to choose Argentina as an economic refuge just plain boggles the mind of any South American considering that the Colossus of the North has been the ambition of the ambitious for a very long time.

The story of Americans fleeing, if true at all, is not picking up too much traction beyond the usual story of foriegners in Buenos Aires that have become commonplace since the un-pegging of the peso to the dollar in 2001. The potential of it morphing into something new, however, looms on the horizon. A new variant is available to any enterprising journalist seeking both to push circulation and catch the wave: "there are now two kinds of foreigners."

Most Argentines believe that all foreigners here are rich. That may seem ridiculous to the foreigners themselves ...but perfectly in line with the empirical evidence experienced by local residents. People here have met many foreigners and they have all been wealthy enough to warrant that label at least somewhat.

Since the devaluation of the Argentine Peso, however, many foreigners of lesser means have taken up residence here. Those new arrivals were bundled into the prevailing attitude regarding the economic status regarding foreigners in general. Their assumed high economic status was never in question.

The idea now that not all foreigners here are rich ...is taking some time to sink in. I think that it will, however.

The traditional attitude in this most cosmopolitan of South American cities is based on good, overwhelming, personal observation of facts collected during the 100 years or so in which tourism to Argentina never existed ...not based on something uninformed nor ignorant.

When the idea finally does sink in, however, a certain immunity enjoyed by rich foreigners and poor ones alike will disappear ...and it will be felt by both groups. We should all expect to have to describe ourselves, on occasion, as to which category we personally belong: the "usual" rich...

...or the refugees from the kind of crisis with which Argentina is well acquainted ...but something virtually unknown to ourselves.