Basque Immigration and Diaspora

Basque Diaspora is the name given to those people who left their homeland "Basque Country" to go live in other regions of the world for economic or political reasons. There are approximately ten million Basque people all over the world whom have preserved their original Basque language and culture. A Well known Basque community or Basque Diaspora in the United States is in Boise, Idaho

Euskal Etxeak or Basque clubs are organizations where Basque immigrants around the world and their descendants gather to share aspects of Basque culture. The majority of the members are descendants of Basque immigrants who left their homeland in the nineteenth century in search of a better life. There are 161 Euskal Etxeak in 21 countries. There are 106 Euskal Etxeak located in Latin America. In Latin America, Argentina has the most with 76, then Uruguay has 10, and Venezuela has 6. Outside of Latin America, there are 36 in North America, 10 in Spain, 5 in the rest of Europe, and 3 in Australia.

Basque fishermen and sailors reached American waters before the voyage of Columbus in 1492. They were amongst the first Europeans to hunt whales off the coast of North America. When Columbus recruited his sailing crew, the majority of his crew were of Basque ethnicity. The Basques continued to participate in voyages across the Atlantic during the earliest years of European exploration of North America. While large-scale immigration to the United States did not begin until the Mid to late 1800s.

The Basque people started to immigrate to the United States in the mid 1800's. Main reasons why the Basque people started immigrating from Basque to the United States and other Countries during the mid 1800s include: Production declines, Economic Stagnation, and Political upheaval in the Basque Country during this period. All of these negative factors arose in the Basque Country during and kept on continuing after the two Carlist wars. The first Carlist war was between 1833 and 1839, the second was between 1872 and 1876.

Today most Basque immigrants around the world consider themselves as they are part of both a country and a culture. Basque immigrants will classify themselves as Basque-Argentinean, Basque-American, or Basque-Mexican. This shows that these Basque immigrants identify themselves a s members of the new country they immigrated to, but still did not forget their original Basque culture.

references:
http://www.everyculture.com/multi/A-Br/Basque-Americans.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_diaspora