Close Cultural Ties Between Spain &and Argentina
Historically the Spanish-Argentina relationship has been close yet at times also with problems. Immigration and emigration between the two countries is constant. Whenever Argentina falls into a crisis many people apply for visas and passports to Spain.
Since immigration has been constant for 150 years between both countries many people from Argentina have parents or grandparents who emigrated to Argentina from Spain. This is particularly true during the time around the Spanish Civil War. Because of their grandparents being Spanish citizens many Argentinians are allowed to obtain Spanish passports.
These passports are used by younger Argentines to escape from the cyclical economic problems facing Argentina resulting in a Spanish Argentine population in both Argentina and Spain. When the Argentina economy is doing well Argentines abroad come back to Argentina but when there are signs of economic problems or a decline Argentines pack up their bags and move back abroad, with Spain being one of the main destinations.
Since career opportunities for young Argentines in their 20's are extremely limited many decide to take their recently finished education abroad and put their skills to use in their new country.
Argentina Seizure of Repsol YPF
Recently the Spanish Argentine diplomatic relationship took a turn for the worse when the Argentine government led by its President Cristina Kirchner decided to seize all of Repsol YPF's Argentina assets. This company was a subsidiary of the Spain parent company Repsol. At the time of the seizure by the Argentina government Repsol YPF was Argentina's largest company with a value of over US$ 18 billion dollars.
The government of Argentina claimed it had the right to seize the company because Repsol YPF had not been investing its profits in the company locally. Many people suspect that the real reason is that the government wanted access to billions of dollars in capital that could be used to pay back its international debt.
Future of Spanish-Argentine Cultural Ties
Argentina continues to face major economic problems at home. Inflation is high, corruption continues to be rampant and there appears to be no end in site. With all these problems Argentina could use help from it's close historic partner, Spain. But because of Argentina's recent seizure of Spain's Repsol YPF the Spanish Argentine diplomatic relationship will continue to suffer. This makes it even harder for Argentina to recover from its economic woes.
Immigration to Spain will be tougher and tougher for Argentines until the Argentina government improves its diplomatic relationship with Spain and compensates Repsol for its seizure of the US$18 billion dollar Repsol subsidiary.
Check out these other Argentina Culture articles.