A Polish Paraguayan is a Paraguayan-born person of full or partial

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

ancestry or a

-born citizen who resides in Paraguay. The peak of Polish immigration to Paraguay began during the 20th century, particularly after World War II when millions of Poles left their country and chose different countries where they could find a better quality of life. In South America, Paraguay was one of the main destinations.

Polish immigration to Paraguay

Paraguay has historically been home to many immigrants from around the world, especially after the Paraguayan War, although not as much as its neighbours Argentina and Brazil. The first Poles arrived in Paraguay in before World War II.

Itapúa Department Itapúa () is a department in the southern region of Paraguay. The capital is the city of Encarnación. It is divided into 30 districts, more than any other district in the country. History This department was created after the breakup of the ...

, bordering Argentina, received large numbers of Polish, Russian, and

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

immigrants. They established colonies such as

Fram Fram may refer to: Ships * ''Fram'' (ship), an arctic exploration vessel from Norway * MS ''Fram'', expedition cruise ship owned by Hurtigruten Group Places and geography * Fram, Paraguay, a town in Itapúa, Paraguay * Fram Formation, a se ...

, north-west of the department capital of Encarnación. From 1927 to 1938, there was an exodus from Poland to Paraguay of more than 10,000 people. About 12,000 Poles emigrated to Paraguay, of whom 60 over the same period returned to Poland. However, a new amount of 12,000 immigrants arrived although there were 2,200 Poles among them only; the rest were mostly Ukrainians (majority) and

Belarusians , native_name_lang = be , pop = 9.5–10 million , image = , caption = , popplace = 7.99 million , region1 = , pop1 = 600,000–768,000 , region2 = , pop2 ...

. Part of the Poles arrived in Paraguay came from the Polish colony of Brazil, who moved from the regions of Santa Catarina and

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative_units_of_Brazil#List, fifth-most-populous state and the List of Brazilian st ...

to Paraguay or Argentina. Other Poles arrived from Argentina. In 1930 a large group of German Mennonites from Poland settled in the colony of Fernheim. It is estimated that in 1939 in Paraguay lived approx. 17,000 Poles and Polish citizens. In the 1930s the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (''Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych'', MSZ) is the Polish government department tasked with maintaining Poland's international relations and coordinating its participation in international and regional supra-nation ...

elaborated a plan of establishing a Polish colony in the triangle between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. The emigration to this area was officially supported, the government even bought some land in the region and initiated two Polish settlements. These ideas collapsed due to World War II.

References

{{Portal bar, Paraguay, Poland European diaspora in Paraguay Immigration to Paraguay * Paraguay Paraguay

Polish immigration to Paraguay

See also

References