Since 2007, when Italy and Libya signed the first deal on immigration control, travel to Europe became a serious issue for African migrants. Now, due to wars and rebellion in north Africa it is even more complex.
In the last 4 years African migrants began to prefer to cross the Atlantic Ocean than the Mediterranean Sea.
Buenos Aires is now one of the main destination for African Migrants. African people didn’t almost exist in Argentina before 2007, even in 2009 most of argentinians were sceptic about the presence of Africans.
Now, in 2013, there are various thousands of African people in Buenos Aires, and every Argentinian is aware of their presence.
The majority is Senegales, from Mouride islamic branch, but migrants came also from Nigeria, Camerun, Ghana, Guinea Conakry, Togo, Sierra Leon, Ivory Coast.
As get a tourist visa to Argentina is not an issue like it is for Europe, some of them come by airplane, but a relevant number cross the ocean hidden in cargo ships.
Mosque are now bigger and in some of them the majority of believer is Senegalese. The government created a new branch of “Defensoria del pueblo”, dedicated to refugees, but more generically to african migrants. Up to now there is only one African restaurant, but there will be probably more in few months. Integration in Argentina is not difficult, even if racism is fashionable everywhere. The immigration policies are very open at the moment, but there are rumors about changes if the phenomenon will grow, and it grows weekly.
