The Southern Cône is the zone of the most southern South America of the continent which forms a large triangle, almost like a large peninsula. Located at the south of the Tropic of Capricorn, it includes/understands the Argentine, the Chile, the Paraguay, the Uruguay. The southernmost states of the Brésil can be also included sometimes.

The principal characteristic of this area, it is the presence of “European” small islands in a Spanish colonial substrate, fruit of the European migratory currents until 1950. In spite of the end of European immigration, its influence is felt.

• the large metropolises of the area, like Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Santiago de Chile, Córdoba, Rosario, Porto Alegre, Curitiba, Asunción LED Paraguay and São Paulo, have most of the population of Italian origin. Only in Argentina, the Italian consulate counts in 2006 approximately 600.000 Argentinian which has the Italian passport; 300.000 of them voted for the elections of 2006 which meant the end of the Berlusconi government. In São Paulo this number is of 180.000 Italian citizens.

• There are cities populated by Germans (Valdivia in Chile, Villa General Belgrano in Argentina, Blumenau in Brazil).
• Of the cities like Bariloche, in Argentina, is populated by descendants Europeans: Sloveniens, Suisses (of which its founder in 1904), but also German and British.
• Trelew, Rawson, Trevelin, Gaiman and Dolavon, in Patagonie, is Celtic colonies, rested by Welsh; in Gaiman one celebrates still today the Eistedfodd.
• the towns of Buenos Aires and São Paulo count hospitals which originate in the requirements in care for the immigrant communities. In Buenos Aires: the German hospital, the Italian hospital (one of the most remarkable centers of high complexity of the country), the French hospital, and the hospital Jew. In São Paulo: the German hospital “Osvaldo Cruz”, the hospital Jew “Albert Einstein”, the Syrian-Lebanese hospital, the Portuguese hospital “Beneficência Portuguesa” and the Italian hospital “Umberto I” (decontaminated).

So the Southern Cone has strongly contradictory characteristics in sociological and cultural terms which differentiate it from the other countries to the top of the tropic of Capricorn. Some go until calling into question the concept even of Latin America, inapplicable according to them with countries with strong European tradition like Argentina, Uruguay or Chile.

These countries of the southern cone also propose standards of living goods higher than the other countries of South America. In Argentina, the GDP per capita is of 15.937$ what brings closer the standard of living to this country close to the standard of living to Western Europe (like Spain or Portugal). Chile is Uruguay, although they propose GDP per capita weaker, are richer all the same than the South American average.