Chains of Gold ─ Portuguese Migration to Argentina in Transatlantic Perspective

Borges (history, Dickinson College) explains how at the turn of the 20th century rural Europeans developed distinctive paths of labor migration as they related to the different immigrant communities in the Americas. The author explores the migrations from the larger perspective of migration systems which helps explain why migrants from southern Portugal chose Argentina as their destination rather than Brazil, the more traditional destination. The scholarly, informative, and well-written study explores those systems by examining their connections and the significant role of social networks in migrants' destination choices. Richly detailed, the book gives an account of the paths taken by the migrant men and women as they traveled from rural Portugal to settle in the Argentine pampas and Patagonia. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Marcelo J. Borges, Ph.D. (1997) in History, Rutgers University, is Associate Professor of History at Dickinson College. He has published extensively on migration history in the Americas and Europe.