25 Years After War, Wealth Changes Falklands

Twenty-five years ago, Argentina invaded this desolate group of British-controlled islands in the remote South Atlantic. After 11 weeks of fighting that took nearly 1,000 lives, British troops drove off the occupiers, allowing the islanders to continue with their eminently British way of life.


Today, the 2,955 people living here face a very different challenge: an invasion of outsiders, brought on by the affluence that has resulted from changes the British introduced in this overseas territory after their 1982 triumph.

Jobs like sheep-shearing and nursing are now filled by Chileans, while mixed-race people from the island of St. Helena take service jobs as waiters and store clerks. Just offshore, Korean, Taiwanese, Russian and Spanish ships with Indonesian, Filipino and Bangladeshi crews scoop up tons of squids, which have replaced wool and mutton as the territory’s principal export.

This is similar to the 20th century when there was a mass immigration from other countries to the United States and everyone was forced to cope and compete with all these foreigners for living space, job opportunities, and just life itself.