CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

The First World War meant the apotheosis of nationalism. Belligerent states appealed to the banner of "Homeland in danger" to mobilize their societies' efforts. The call to the home front also included the citizens residing overseas, who -despite the distance- responded on a great scale to their government's military and economical requests. Nevertheless, distance inspired in most of these migrants a peculiar national identity, resulting from their migratory experience and their different degrees of integration to the reception countries. This peculiarity posed a dilemma for them around the extent of the solidarity due to the Fatherland, especially for the second generation, born and raised abroad. At the same time, the strong links with their new homes fostered the immigrants' active involvement in the public local debates around the repercussions of the war and the neutral states position toward it. This paper aims to analyze the reactions displayed by the immigrant communities in Argentina facing the challenges of wartime. In that sense, it will reconstruct the activities developed to support their states of origin's war effort and the internal discussions about the limits of such cooperation. The paper will also intend to reflect on the complex process of identity construction in a migratory context. The Argentine case is interesting to deal with these subjects because of the cosmopolitan character of this country. From the creation of its national state, in the second half of the XIXth century, the Argentine Republic received abundant migratory flows from Europe. Immigration poured out along its territory, participating in the agro-export activities of the country, and contributing to the construction of a multicultural society. On the eve of the Great War, immigrants constituted a third of Argentinian population, and in Buenos Aires -the capital city- they almost reached to be the half part of the inhabitants.