About half a century ago, Brazilians became an emigrant people. They leave Brazil mainly in search of a better quality of life and head to countries where they believe they will find this condition. The United States is among the favorite destinations for Brazilians, hosting between 800,000 to 1.3 million immigrants, according to data from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They are primarily located on the east coast of the country, have a high educational level compared to other immigrant communities, and actively participate in the American economy, demonstrating a low unemployment rate.
These and many other data are the result of years of research by Brazilians Álvaro Lima (photo) and Allani Barbosa de Castro, culminating in the newly released book “Brazilians in the United States – Half a Century (Re)making America (1960 – 2010)”, published by the Alexandre de Gusmão Foundation and available for free download at the site: http://funag.gov.br.
To analyze five decades of immigration, the authors used official data available from both Brazilian and American sources, as well as their own personal and professional experiences. Álvaro Lima is the research director for the City of Boston, where he works directly with the local population, which includes a significant number of immigrants. Lima is also the founder of the site Digaaí, a digital platform that gathers around 7,000 publications produced by Brazilian immigrant communities around the world. Allani Barbosa de Castro works at Sebrae in Minas Gerais developing projects aimed at Brazilian entrepreneurs abroad and those returning to Brazil.
In the book, Alvaro and Allani analyze the evolution of the Brazilian community in the United States since the 1960s, showing through graphs and statistics the changes in the profile of the Brazilian emigrant, their achievements, and current challenges.
In an exclusive interview with The Brasilians, Álvaro Lima talks about the production of the work and highlights the main information that readers will find. Check it out below.
THE BRASILIANS: How was the production of “Brazilians in the United States – Half a Century (Re)making America (1960 – 2010)”? What difficulties did you encounter?
ÁLVARO LIMA: Part of the data is the result of original research that I did here and Allani in Brazil. Others come from a series of institutions, such as the American census, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the International Organization for Migration. We also used research from existing literature. There is a lot at universities, but everything is very dispersed. That was the difficulty we faced; finding and gathering this data took a long time. And finally, we also had ten years of documentation from Digaaí, which has a bibliographic collection of about 7,000 publications, including community newspapers. This is very valuable because it shows what has changed and how it has changed. You see people arriving from Brazil, the first Brazilian shops emerging, buying a house, then selling the house, people returning. All of this helped me think about the book I wanted to write.
TB: When did Brazilians start leaving Brazil and what are their main motivations?
AL: Historically, the flow starts in the 1960s and explodes in the 1980s and early 90s with the economic crisis and then the political crisis of the Collor government. People emigrate today for more or less the same reasons: economic and political crisis, social disorganization, violence, and insecurity. These elements repeat in the history of Brazilian emigration.
TB: In the United States, how many of us are there today and where are we?
AL: According to data from the American census, there are about 300,000 Brazilians living here. For the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil, there are between 800,000 and 1.3 million Brazilians in the United States. This number is supported by other research, but it is very difficult to know the exact number due to political issues. For example, many people do not respond to the census. The largest number of Brazilians is in Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and California. Today, the flow to Florida is the largest. Orlando has a new community that is growing very quickly.
TB: What are the most important conclusions from the research conducted for the publication of the book?
AL: The most important thing was to see the immense progress that the Brazilian community has made, with economic and social integration. Now there is beginning to be political integration. For the first time, we have three Brazilian candidates for city council in the state of Massachusetts and one candidate for mayor of Framingham (MA). It’s incredible because I arrived in this country when there were no Brazilians, and today you see that it is a community of size, middle class, quite different.
TB: What would you highlight as the most important unpublished data from the book?
AL: without a doubt this aspect of the formation of the Brazilian middle class, the low unemployment rate, high level of education, and active participation in the American job market. When you compare with other communities, Brazilians are doing better than other groups. But we still have difficulty turning salary into wealth. The proportion of Brazilians with home ownership, for example, is very small. We still haven’t managed to turn what we earn into assets.
TB: And are these Brazilians coming to stay?
AL: I think so. We even see that those who returned to Brazil are coming back here. And the current flow is different from previous ones. Before, many people came from small and medium-sized cities, like Governador Valadares. Now emigration is spreading throughout Brazil and comes from large cities, like Curitiba and São Paulo.
TB: What do Brazilian immigrants need today? What can Brazilian authorities and community leaders do?
AL: There are three important things at this moment: to form alliances with other sectors and other communities to combat and defend immigrants from the risk created by the Trump government with the dehumanization of immigrants. Second, to start a conversation about the second generation of Brazilian immigrants. How do we ensure that this second generation makes a leap as usually happens? How to provide them with better conditions than the first? And we cannot forget that the first generation will be the first group of elderly Brazilians in America. How to ensure that old age is better than the hard years of work? How have other communities dealt with this? Finally, the support of the Brazilian government to different sectors of the community, such as youth and entrepreneurs. The significant organizations that operate here are still very focused on Brazil and not on the community.