Global Policy Forum

By Larry Rohter

Liliana Cardamone's father came to Argentina from Italy as a child because his parents dreamed of a better life here. But on Friday morning, Ms. Cardamone was standing in a long line outside the Italian Embassy, preparing to claim Italian nationality so that she and her husband and two small children can move to her father's homeland.

"It pains me to do this, and I haven't told my father yet for fear of how he will react," Ms. Cardamone, 34, said as she waited in line with her cousin Guillermo Clasadonte, who also hopes to leave Argentina. "But we can't stand it any longer." "We have put up with so much for so long, hoping that the situation will get better," she said, "but it is obvious it will be years before we get out of this mess, and I don't want my children to have to go through this."

Mr. Clasadonte, who is 28 and unemployed, said he had already discussed emigration with his father, who heartily approves. "He has been here more than 40 years and is living on a pension, but things are so bad that he still has to work to survive," Mr. Clasadonte said. "He wants to go back, too."

After four years of recession and now a 40 percent devaluation of the peso, an increasingly battered and dispirited middle class is giving up and trying to get out, in an alarming exodus that threatens to sap the country's strength and cuts straight to its sense of identity. On top of food riots last month, a rotation of five presidents, and a debt default, Argentines are finding the daily lines outside embassies especially traumatic. Like the United States, this is a country built by immigrants, many of whom still have dual citizenship or can apply for a passport based on family ancestry, making it easier and all the more enticing to leave. These days television news programs are full of grainy and nostalgic images of ships from Europe docking here a century ago with their hopeful new arrivals on board.

Though it may be early to talk about a brain drain, President Eduardo Duhalde, who took office Jan. 1, expressed concern last week at the forces that are "bleeding the energy" of the country. But his plea to be patriotic and remain until times get better clearly does not convince everyone.

In contrast to those in other Latin American countries, a majority of Argentina's 36 million people are of Italian descent. Many others can claim Spanish nationality, and there is also a significant Anglo-Argentine colony, as well as a Jewish population that was estimated at more than 300,000 people at its peak but is now losing numbers as a result of departures to Israel. The emigration to Italy has been accelerated by efforts by clubs of descendants from regions like Venice that are recruiting for jobs in factories or offices. But it also helps that passport requirements by Italy are less demanding than those of Spain, said Myriam Benotti, who runs a citizenship consulting service here that is now receiving inquiries from 50 families a week. People can claim Italian nationality based on ancestry on one side going back a number of generations, and then apply for a passport. Spain generally sets a shorter limit on the number of generations for which a claim can be made.

"A lot of people don't speak Italian and don't really intend to stay in Italy," she said. "The idea is to get European citizenship so as to be able to go to Spain or some other country, or even to go to the United States."

Officials at the American Embassy here say the impact of the crisis so far has been minimal. The population with dual citizenship here eligible to relocate to the United States is relatively small. Argentina is one of more than two dozen countries where, because of a history of people using visas correctly, they do not need visas to travel to the United States for business or tourism. Neither the Italian nor the Spanish Embassy here was willing to provide figures on the number of Argentines claiming dual citizenship or requesting a passport. But the lines that begin forming in front of each embassy before dawn and often stretch for two blocks or more by the opening of business hours suggest that the numbers run into the tens of thousands.

"The count is double today what it was just a month ago," when the government put a freeze on withdrawals from bank accounts, "and even then the count was way above what it was a year ago," said Claudia Bas, who works for a citizenship consultancy firm, as she handed out fliers to people waiting in line outside the embassy. "It seems like everyone wants to get out of here."

In a recent poll, nearly half of those surveyed said they would leave Argentina if they could. The most eager to emigrate were people between the ages of 30 and 42 who had a high-school education or better, with women more willing to relocate than men.

Claudio Donoso, 27, an unemployed man who was waiting with Marí­a Laura Giambelluca, his 19-year-old girlfriend, to request an Italian passport, expressed disdain for President Duhalde and other politicians. "It's always the same old garbage from the same old people, and I just can't stand it anymore," he said.

For Laura Malosetti, 40, and her husband, Pablo Sercovich, 38, the reasons are more economic than political. They have worked hard to build a business raising chickens and pigs in the countryside, but no longer have faith in Mr. Duhalde's assurances that the economy is bound to improve. "All our friends have been gradually leaving, our savings have been eaten up, and now they have frozen the bank accounts," Ms. Malosetti said. "Our big fear is that we wait too long and that everything collapses beneath us."

Mr. Sercovich, whose mother was Italian, already has his passport and will leave Argentina within a month. As soon as he gets a job, whether in Italy or Spain, she and their four children, whose ages range from 5 to 15, plan to follow, she said. "To have to leave one's own country causes great anguish, but it is better to start over somewhere else than to remain here," she said. "Argentina has become like quicksand: the more you move, the deeper you sink."

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