MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine younger generations naturalizing emigration is almost inevitable

“There is so much hopelessness,” a 50-year-old mother told the Córdoba newspaper

About 47% of Argentines believe that a family member or an acquaintance will leave the country shortly, according to a report by Córdoba's daily La Voz del Interior published Sunday.

Young people were not planning to move abroad just for economic purposes, the article also noted. The new generations are also concerned about their future and stability in a technological, virtual, global, and demanding world while seeking a life project outside old family mandates, coupled with recurrent disappointments in a country hopping from one crisis into another.

In that scenario, those who can afford to travel and support themselves “until they find a job in the host country” and also “those who have papers to live legally abroad” will give emigration a shot, La Voz pointed out.

”Although more and more cases are being heard, the departure of young people (many with university degrees) is a trend that is difficult to measure in figures. Moreover, the existing official data are outdated,“ La Voz also noted. By June of 2021, ”about 200 people“ were moving abroad daily. But the number is believed to be much higher, since many migrants were forced to conceal their true purposes.

A survey by Trendsity quoted by La Voz showed that when asked whether someone they knew was likely to leave the country, 21% replied ”very likely“ and 26% said it was ”quite likely,“ while 26% said it was ”neither likely nor unlikely,“ 14% replied ”unlikely'' and another 14%, “very unlikely.”

“Alarming are the numbers, especially among the younger and higher socioeconomic status; a problem of young talent drain in light of lack of prospects,'' the report stressed. The study also showed that nine out of 10 people were worried about the future.

”A few years ago, when we asked about the future, young people were less concerned. But today the future worries them as much as it does adults,“ Trendsity CEO Mariela Mociulsky said.

”For young people 'the future is everything'. And today it is uncertain,“ La Voz highlighted.

”We live with fewer mandates than in other times when the future was more mapped out and even identity was more predefined. The options were more limited, the path to success was more predictable,“ Mociulsky also pointed out.

She also told La Voz that in the past, people with a good education had a brighter future ahead of them but all that has changed with the knowledge revolution, the internet, globalization, new skills required for the jobs of the future, and the existence of other professions and trades, such as mining cryptocurrencies, gaming, e-sports, community managers and others.

Millennials ”do care about building a future where they can project, feel safe, secure. There is no clarity on where that more reassuring situation is. In countries like ours where we have such high levels of inflation, many see that the future is in [Buenos Aires' international airport] Ezeiza,“ Mociulsky added.

La Voz also printed statements from parents concerned over the fact that middle-class Argentines have ”naturalized“ the idea that their children will leave the country, ”as has been happening for decades in Central American countries,“ because ”there is so much hopelessness that one even thinks with all the pain in one's soul that the best thing is for them to go and look for a more stable and prosperous life somewhere else.”

(Source: La Voz del Interior)