The Argentine Case
In the early years of the oilfields, companies tended to recruit European workers. Several of the companies themselves were European owned and knew the value of workers familiar with an industrial setting, even if not specifically skilled in mineral extraction. This preference underwent something of an adjustment following the late 1920s.  In Comodoro Rivadavia, the state-owned oil company, as a state designated policy, began a process of the "Argentinization" of their workforce. This new policy was aimed "dealing" with the large number of foreign immigrants and balancing out a population in the oilfields where Argentines were a minority. One important intended product of this was the reduction of the growing industrial collective influence in central Patagonia of labor unions and other political groups that drew on the European experience.
Oil towers in Comodoro Rivadavia with snow
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Oil wells in Barrio General Mosconi, Comodoro Rivadavia

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Ruben Correa - migrant
Video clip (1) Describes the reasons for migrating to Comodoro Rivadavia from La Rioja, Argentina.  

Transcript of video clip 1.


Video clip (2) Describes journey from La Rioja to Comodoro Rivadavia.

Transcript of video clip 2.

From the earliest days of the development of the area, workers' collectives had voiced their desires for improved conditions and the Argentine government in particular had grown fearful of the import of even more radical syndicalist ideas from across the Atlantic. At the same time, Argentine politics was demonstrating a growing nationalism into which fit perfectly efforts to promote the internal movement of native Argeninians to share in the work and the prosperity of the new oilfields. General Mosconi, the new Y.P.F. director, was particularly enamored of such a project and this resulted in the continued promotion of migration from northern Argentina, especially from La Rioja and Catamarca, to Comodoro Rivadavia.  The impetus for internal migrants to move from the economically troubled rural northwestern provinces of Argentina was certainly strong even if the jobs on offer were for unskilled oil field workers in a strange industry and a strange region far removed from what they had known.
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Ernesto Allende - migrant
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Salomon Cuevas - migrant
Video clip  Describes his first impressions of Comodoro Rivadavia, more specifically Barrio San Martín.

Transcript  of video clip.

Video clip  Describes network connections and adaptation to life in Comodoro Rivadavia.

Transcript of video clip.

To carry out their policy, the government recruited in these poor rual areas and provided free railway travel from the northwest to Buenos Aires. From there, these migrants, like their European counterparts, would frequently travel by sea to Patagonia, often on a Y.P.F. company ship.  Many were completely unprepared for what met them. The work was unfamiliar both in the skills required and in the industrial and social organization of the oil company towns, and their role or "duty," to help the "Argentinization" of the area and its industry.  Adaptation was often difficult and in consequence migrant maintained strong links with their home regions. Many migrated back and forth between Comodoro Rivadavia and their home areas - mimicking significant numbers of the European workers who sometimes did the same - to visit their families and bring them money to help their status and well being in poor rural communities. Also following the example of the European migrants, after the initial phase of direct government recruitment, Argentinian internal migrants formed dynamic social networks of assistance that maintained the flow of new workers from the north and provided through social and recreational centers a companionship and s memory of home in their adopted community.

People on boat
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Crane used to unload passengers
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