Cousins and Strangers: A Harmonious Meeting

Moyas Cousins and Strangers is a monograph which encapsulates different aspects of a situation heathen phenomenonthe position of Spanish immigrants in Argentina. The reason workouts writings from primary quill sources much(prenominal) as letters to knead the basis of his apprehensiveness of this phenomenon, taking an admittance to history that seems to present aw be knowledge in harm of authenticity and substantiate details.The book covers the historical period from 1850 to 1930, when, in an uncommon exodus, millions of people migrated from the vastly-overpopulated Europe to Latin America. This paper focuses on a comparative review of Moyas macro-structural and micro cordial approaches, tack together in ch apter one and three respectively.The commencement exercise chapter is an apt illustration of Moyas style. He examines emigration from Spain in a macro-structural light, examining the designers for the movement of millions from one continent to a nonher. In terms of the methodology he has utilized, Moya observes that he does not validate the soft method, since he has found that the denary one is more likely to present undefiled results, and is less vulnerable to the risk of manipulationThis earthy discrepancy amid my findings and the soft record in one case again confirms the potential for deception inherent in qualitative sources and the peril of relying solely on this attri ande of material. It validates the need for duodecimal methods in social history. (p. 233)Although Moyas own book is based on qualitative research through the examination of census records, refreshedspapers, magazines, and face-to-face narratives, therefore, he still recommends that qualitative research cannot be the sole measure of a phenomenon or its attri furtheres. As Moya observes, no study which aims at the uncovering of prehistoric social realities (p. 233) can afford to contract save in the gathering of data through qualitative means.According to him, if the researcher does not discover and implement quantitative means of gathering data, he or she is scarce participating in a kind of literary criticismthe compendium of texts (p. 233). This is not to deride literary criticism, but to illustrate a primary exit between literary and historical writingthe demands of the last mentioned imply that the writer or researcher engage in methods of exploration that are focused on real, empirical contexts, and not just on opinions on existing documentation, which would be akin to a literary analysis alternatively than an exposition of freshly discover facts.Moya begins the first chapter by addressing his central research irresolution directly to the readers Why did the Mataronese and 2 million another(prenominal)wise Spaniards migrate to Argentina between the midnineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth? (p. 13) He goes on to strategy the primary reasons, and quotes data from sources which beat previously been negl ected as being of much value, such(prenominal) as an incidental expense remark made by Argentinianan Vice-Consul Carrau, who described the shift- push arrangement as the primary reason for the migration (p. 13).According to this method, which Moya describes as a effective heuristic device (p. 13), migration takes flummox because contract factors drive people out of a particular location, while pull factors entice them into venturing into a geographic area which may fulfill the migrating peoples requirements. As Carrau observed, the strikes and labor unrest that flummox drive 5,000 workers into public charity push hundreds across the nautical, attracted by the flourishing economy of the River Plate (p. 13).However, Moya is a acute researcher and does not accept easy answers. He points out that there is one basic tarnish in the identification of such a reason for emigrationWe could find a myriad of places in which labor unrest, famine, wars, starvation, and a whole array of push factors never led to emigration and in which fertile, vacant lands, flourishing economies, high wages, and other pull factors never enticed immigration. In other words, push and pull conditions check concurred in countless areas and countries of the world from date antique to the present, yet mass transoceanic migration occurred only during a particular historical epoch from the midnineteenth century to the massive Depression of 1930. (p. 13)It is clear from the outset, therefore, that Moya does not wish to dedicate generalizations to his area of research nor does he want to natural spring more credibility than is due to the push and pull argument, even if it is true in this case. As the author observes, the same conditions have existed over several cultures in disparate locations and periods in history, but none have led to migration on such a extensive scale. Consequently, it is clear that Moyas intention here is to severalize particular rather than universal reason s for the Spanish migration to Argentina. As he declares, one could easily compile resembling lists for periods and places where no migration took place (p. 14). Although the question of why migration took place is itself simple, therefore, the answer is not (p. 14).This, however, is not to suggest that Moya debunks the push-and-pull surmisal in the context of this exodus. He acknowledges that As the shorten matured, a more balanced approach began to punctuate the complex interp set between the premigration heritage and the forces environment, between continuity and change (p. 4). As he observes, the design of adaptation of peoples to new cultures, and their subsequent assimilation into the host culture, form the a priori position of this study (p. 4).Although roughly works on cultural migration focus on the movement itself and on its possible causes, Moya chooses to go brook to an earlier time, covering the three decades prior to the migration, to dissect the pre-arrival t raits (p. 4) of the migrant community, thus prioritizing the dynamics of interaction with their new environment that the migrants faced, and the ways in which environmental changes impacted their adaptation to their new host culture.A particularly useful feature of Moyas text is that he to a fault provides occasional commentary on his methods, and uses such instances to himself adumbrate the possible drawbacks of his approaches. For example, in his chapter on migration, he discusses the validity of the macro-structural approach During the decades when macro- structural conditions obstructed emigration, the microsocial networks became inactive but not inert, the chain became dormant but did not die (p. 68). In the light of this recognition, Moya bases his next department on the microsocial approach, utilizing it to complement and sometimes counter the evidence and recommendations suggested by the macro-structural approach.The primary factor which encourages Moya to implement the microsocial approach in his quest to discover why the immigration took place is the fact that there was a socio-historical case in point for such migration Emigration from Matar to Buenos Aires dated back at least to the middle of the octeteenth century and was sooner related to transatlantic trade (p. 61). At this point, Moyas microsocial approach takes the text into a hitherto-unexplored area of interpretation, as he takes the argument back full tidy sum to Vice-Consul Carrau, and the manner in which his accommodation as an authoritative impacts our quest to discover the reasons behind the migrationYet the real clue to understanding Mataronese immigration to Argentina lay not in the protocol and formality of that appointment but in the less formal earth it concealed If one scrutinizes the consulates, odd and unconventional consuls appear. Indeed, the Argentine vice-consul at Matar was neither a diplomat nor an Argentine. sr. Carrau was a Matar druggist with personal and com mercial oversea relations, married to the daughter of Josep Riera Canals, an americano, or successful returnee who kept up(p) business and family relations with Buenos Aires. (p. 63)Moya goes on to outline other such business and personal connections between Carraus succeeding consuls and Buenos Aires as well. He comes to the discovery that in provinces that lacked social linkages with Buenos Aires, like Valladolid and Crdoba, the results in terms of attracting immigrants proved disappointing (p. 64). Thus, Moya considerably expands the scope of his analysis by including such non-formal reasons for immigration as social precedents and interconnectedness between the act of immigration and intra-city links, which must have provided the incentive for their Spanish cousins to enter areas in Argentina which had established links with immigrant cultures.In his microsocial analysis, Moya also looks into such empirical factors conducive to immigration as the availability of roads and oth er transport routes that may have facilitated travel. He points out that such factors as the transference (sometimes illegal) of such refuges in cargo and passenger ships are an important consideration in identifying why the Spanish migrants decided to go to Argentina, rather than any other neighboring location. For example, he observes that from 1840 to 1860, there were only quad ship routes from Europe to the River Plate, and only five ports in Spain, out of which only one, Genoa, was the primary point of pass for emigrants (p. 64).Other ports remained inaccessible to immigrants Moyas research of passenger lists from the time revealed that Barcelona, for example, had no record, of any vessel carrying more than eight such passengers, barring one exception, which was also special(a) to only sixteen passengers. Also, Barcelona was not a contain on many of the routes. It was only in the 1880s, when the use of larger and faster carriers and more frequent ocean crossings enabled st eamships from the Genoa route to make stops in Barcelona (p. 64) that large-scale migration to Argentina began. Thus, Moya resources empirical causes for the mass migration, which gives us a realistic picture of what actually happened, rather than relying on sociological or ethnological theory to outline the reasons for why the migration took place.Among Moyas strengths is the fact that despite his butt end area being a large demographic population and also covering a longsighted historical period, he does not focus to a fault on the broader, more generalized aspects of such research, but instead provides detailed indata formattingion, often in the form of charts and tables (e.g., pp. 16-17) which provide the reader with a quick at-a-glance format in which to assess information. Also, he does not shackle his work to national boundaries by prioritizing either Spain or Argentina as the point of focus, but rather focuses on the migrating population itself. This gives his work an ob jectivity that transcends issues of cultural and ethic domination.ReferencesMoya, J. C. (1998). Cousins and strangers Spanish immigrants in Buenos Aires, 1850-1930. Berkeley The University of California Press.