French Argentines

French Argentines (French: Franco-Argentins; Spanish: franco-argentinos) refers to Argentine citizens of full or partial French or French Basque ancestry or persons born in France who reside in Argentina. French Argentines form one of the largest ancestry groups after Italian Argentines and Spanish Argentines. Between 1857 and 1960, 400,000 French people immigrated to Argentina. Besides immigration from continental France, Argentina also received, as early as the 1840s, immigrants with French background from neighboring countries, notably Uruguay, which expanded the French Argentine community. It is estimated that around 8 million Argentines had some degree of French ancestry, up to 17% of the total population. Argentines of French descent make up a substantial proportion of the Argentine population, but they are less visible than other similarly-sized ethnic group because of the high degree of assimilation and the lack of substantial French colonies throughout the country.