Argentina to charge foreigners for use of universities, public hospitals

President Javier Milei’s government has announced changes to Argentina’s immigration system which will see foreigners charged fees for attending state universities or public hospitals.

It will also tighten requirements for overseas visitors to the country and redefine the grounds for expulsion of immigrants from national territory, confirmed Presidential Spokesperson Manuel Adorni at a press conference.

These changes, Adorni said, would make Argentina a more “orderly” country, one “taking care of its borders and protecting Argentine citizens.”

Milei’s top spokesman asserted: “This is the objective of this reform we are going to promote.”

The headline-grabbing move is an attempt to regain the initiative. The government was criticised last week after the controversial failure of a bill in Congress which would have imposed anti-corruption rules for candidates seeking public office. The proposed legislation failed to even win enough support to begin debate in the lower house.

Charging non-resident foreigners for higher education and ending health tourism are ideas long trailed by the Milei administration, though it has failed to make progress on the issue to date.

The clampdown also comes with the government at odds with state universities over funding cuts to their budget, part of a wider shift to austerity.

“National universities will be able to charge fees to non-resident foreign students,” said Adorni on Tuesday, assuring that this will represent a fresh source of income for institutions.

According to fact-checking website Chequeado, 4.1 percent of all university students in 2022, some 122,000, were born overseas, rising to 9.9 percent of post-graduates. At the popular University of Buenos Aires, 23 percent of medical students are foreign.

Some university leaders criticised the move. Guillermo Durán, the dean of the Faculty of Exact Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), called the announcement “a total absurdity.” 

There are no cases of “non-resident students,” he told the LN+ news channel, explaining that to study at a public university, applicants must obtain residency, granting them the same rights as a native.

Constitutional lawyer Félix Lonigro said on Tuesday that there is a “higher education law establishing free public state university education.” Amending it, he said, would require congressional approval, he told the same channel. 

No to health tourism

Adorni also revealed that the Milei administration will seek to put an end to free medical care for non-resident foreigners, indicating that the competent national, provincial or municipal bodies will determine the conditions of access, as they see fit.

As a federal country, in Argentina the national government can only decide on the hospitals of which it has charge while the provinces have autonomy.

Earlier this year, some provinces – including Mendoza, Santa Cruz, Salta and Jujuy – started charging non-resident foreigners for healthcare.

“Since this measure was taken in Salta [Province], for example, care for foreigners has been reduced by 95 percent and savings of 60 million pesos have been made. This implies not only fiscal savings but also better care for the rest of the citizens who are actually residents of our country,” he said.

The opposition Peronist government in Buenos Aires Province, the nation’s most populous region, rejected the move, stating it would only provoke “hatred and resentment.” Provincial Health Minister Nicolás Kreplak said the district would maintain free healthcare in public hospitals.

Adorni also said that the government would tighten requirements for those seeking to enter the country, incorporating “more crimes as grounds for preventing entry or as justification for expelling an immigrant from the country if a criminal is caught” in the act.

“If they are caught committing the crime or are detained for violating the democratic system, they will be expelled and banned from re-entering the country,” he promised.

“Those who try to enter with fake documentation or who are suspected of having a different reason for entry than the one they actually state when they pass through or complete the immigration process will remain on the other side of the border,” the spokesman added.

– TIMES/NA/PERFIL