RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The number of Brazilians living abroad has never been as large as it is today. According to the latest Itamaraty (Foreign Ministry) survey, it grew by 35% between 2010 and 2020, from 3.1 million (3,122,813) to 4.2 million (4,215,800).
However, the number of Brazilians in different world regions could be more than double the official estimates, the researchers said.
Between 2018 and 2020, the Brazilian community abroad officially grew by 625,000 people, a figure larger than the population of cities such as Niterói, Caxias do Sul, or Joinville.
Emigration continued despite border restrictions caused by the Covid 19 pandemic. And unlike previous migration flows, those who leave now take their families with them, a sign that they will not return.
More and more Brazilians are taking the risk of leaving Brazil and settling in the United States, for example. Between January and July of this year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection turned back or deported 37,421 Brazilians who tried to enter the country illegally – a record 938% above the 3,603 in the same period last year.
So many Brazilians are coming to the U.S. that Congresswoman Jody Hice of the Republican Party (Georgia) tweeted in early May, “Every week between 1,200 and 1,500 Brazilians fly into Tijuana (the border between Mexico and the U.S.)…. but it’s not just about tourism.”
“Even if they are turned away and sent back to the country, the next step for a portion of them is to try to go abroad again,” says Professor Sueli Siqueira of the Vale do Rio Doce University in Governador Valadares, the city where Brazilian emigration to the U.S. began many years ago. “There are families who sell everything and pay about US$12,000 to the agent to get across the border,” she reports.
This situation can be explained in one word: Desperation. “The Brazilian emigrant does not believe in Brazil and feels that the country will never work and that he has no prospect of a better life,” says Professor Eduardo Picanço Cruz of the Universidade Federal Fluminense, who has researched emigrants in Australia, Canada, France, Portugal, Switzerland, and Estonia.
“The crucial issue of our diaspora has to do with the repulsive reason of origin, more than the important reason of the place you go.”
“Those who leave Brazil with their family are a sign that they have no intention of returning, meaning they don’t just want to make a living like they used to,” says Maxine Margolis, professor emerita of anthropology at the University of Florida and a pioneer in the study of Brazilians in the United States. She published “Little Brazil” about the Brazilian community in New York in 1994, “The Invisible Minority” in 2009, and “Goodbye Brazil” in 2013.
The Brazilian community abroad remitted US$30.5 billion (R$171 billion) to Brazil between 2010 and 2020, according to the World Bank. In 2020, despite the problems caused by the pandemic, the volume reached US$3.6 billion, up 10.9% from the previous year.
Remittances from abroad reached a record US$1.9 billion in the first half of this year. The money came mainly from foreigners in the United States (US$946 million), the United Kingdom (US$370.4 million), and Portugal (US$101.3 million).
The Brazilian community is more consolidated and numerically stronger in the United States, especially in Massachusetts, Florida, and New York, Picanço notes. In Europe, Brazilians prefer Portugal, Spain, Italy, England, France, Germany, and Switzerland.
In Japan, there is a strong Brazilian community of “decaséguis” who have resided in the country for more than 30 years. And they show a circular migration characteristic, returning from time to time to their destination and then to their origin, Picanço said. Australia and Canada are popular destinations for young immigrants.
Brazil is a country that has always welcomed immigrants. But in the early 1980s, thousands of Brazilians began going abroad.
The number of Brazilians in the U.S. is officially 1,775,000, or 42% of all Brazilians living aboad. The largest community, with a population of 450,000, falls under the consular jurisdiction in New York. Until the mid-1980s, the migration boom to the United States coincided with major difficulties in the Brazilian economy.
The emigration of middle-class people increased and became visible, and scholars began to study the issue. Brazilian communities were well structured in the U.S., with commerce, churches, clubs, radio, etc.
This stream of coming and going continued amid the so-called culture of migration and the idea that the American way of life is the best that can be achieved. Many who leave do not speak a word of English but have connections, such as a relative in the U.S., that enable them to leave.
With the housing crisis in the U.S. that triggered the great global financial crisis of 2009-10, the outflow slowed but did not dry up. And transnational families came into play. The father and mother, who were in the U.S. illegally and were afraid of leaving the country and not re-enter, began sending their children to Brazil on American passports to visit relatives. This solidified the continuous flow of migration.
Over the years, Brazilians have discovered other ways to enter the U.S. and bypass border controls. For example, by first traveling to Europe two or three times without needing a visa. And only after that, with stamped passport, to apply for a U.S. visa, with a better chance of success. Once in the U.S., officially for tourist purposes, they disappear into what Professor Margolis calls a community invisible to Americans, which “generally does not distinguish between Brazilians and other Latinos.”
As it became increasingly difficult to obtain visas, another mechanism used was the southern border through Mexico. However, the Mexican border has become more dangerous as the route has been taken over by human traffickers. There have been reports of rape, the use of emigrants as couriers to transport drugs, etc.
None of this has discouraged Brazilians, Siqueira says. Under the “cai-cai” system, migrants without visas and their minor children are not immediately deported upon arrival in the United States.
People are exposed to enormous risks, including kidnapping children who do not even belong to them. To protect the child, the illegal immigrants must appear before a judge for crossing the border without documentation. This gives them time to disappear into U.S. territory.
Unlike in the 1980s, when it was mainly the middle class that emigrated, the profile of Brazilian emigrants today is more diverse. The lower middle class is also seeking to go abroad. There is also the businessman who sells his five apartments and his farm and tries to invest his savings in the United States, as Siqueira reports.
At the same time, says Rodrigo Costa, executive director of AG Immigration, a Florida-based U.S. consulting firm for foreigners, more and more qualified Brazilians are applying for “green cards” (permanent residency) based on their successful careers in Brazil.
According to Costa, the prospects for Brazilians with good qualifications to start a new life in the U.S. have never been more promising if they enter through the front door, i.e., legally. This is because the U.S. needs skilled professionals for jobs that require technical knowledge and experience, such as doctors, engineers, IT professionals, and airplane pilots.
Over the past decade, more than 132,000 Brazilians have received green cards, up 31% from the previous decade. In 2019, a record number of green cards were approved for Brazilians in the same year, with 19,825 documents issued. In 2021, the demand for this document could break all records, “considering how dissatisfied Brazil is with the economy and politics at the moment.”
As of April 30, 3,611 new applications for green cards for Brazilian citizens have already been registered, 28% more than in the same period last year. The cost of trying to obtain a green card is about US$20,000, including legal fees and taxes.
For Costa, it is an investment. With the document, which grants its holders the same rights as Americans except the right to vote, the person can buy a house with a down payment of 5% of the total value and an interest rate of 2.8% per year. And children can study for free until high school.
Another argument is the escape from violence in Brazil. In a survey of 200 Brazilians in the U.S. conducted by Professor Siqueira, 70% of respondents said they lived in fear of violence in their country. Still, the vast majority admitted that they had never been robbed, for example.
In general, many foreigners reiterate their annoyance with the country’s politicians and believe they are all corrupt. Some said they left the country because of Presidents Lula, Dilma Rousseff, and Bolsonaro, the researchers said.
In Europe, Itamaraty recorded 1,300,525 Brazilians at the end of 2020, representing 30.8% of the total community abroad. The discrepancy with data from Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical service, which counted only 461,246 Brazilians for 2020, is large. In reality, the number is much higher than the sum of the figures from Itamaraty and Eurostat.
Estimating the Brazilian population abroad is one of the most difficult tasks for researchers. Official data show only the number of people with final departures, transfers of executives abroad, and voter registrations at Brazilian consulates abroad.
In countries such as the United States and Canada, immigrants with irregular status do not appear in these figures. In European countries and Japan, many already leave as citizens of those countries due to kinship ties and do not show up in official statistics.
What is certain is that the number of Brazilians in Europe is increasing, according to all estimates. According to Eurostat, 16.8% more Brazilians were registered in 2020 than in 2019, living in a country of the old continent.
More and more Brazilians are also obtaining European citizenship. In 2019, there were 23,500, of whom more than 70% had Italian and Portuguese citizenship.
Brazilian nationality remains the main foreign community in Portugal, accounting for 27.8% of the total population in 2020. According to the Department of Foreigners and Border Protection, there are 184,000 Brazilians in the country, 21% more than in 2019. Still, Professor Picanço estimates that there could be around 350,000 Brazilians living in the country.
The influx of Brazilians is now more diverse in terms of qualifications. And the demand is quite high in all cases. The assessment is that Portugal will continue to offer opportunities for Brazilians with good qualifications and in construction areas. There is a shortage of labor in this country, known for its workforce scattered throughout Europe.
“Brazilians are an excellent opportunity for Portugal. We have lost population, the birth rate is negative [-2%] and is somewhat compensated by Brazilian emigration,” says the professor. “Now Portugal is experiencing a construction boom, with public investment and high housing prices. Traditionally, there was no Brazilian immigration in this sector, but now there is.”
In the information technology sector, many Portuguese prefer to work in Germany, Switzerland, or other countries with higher wages, so Brazilians fill vacancies. “The situation works both ways. For Brazilians, going to Portugal can be a stepping stone [to other countries]. A young Brazilian in IT earns about 1,100 pounds net, while a more senior employee earns 3,000 pounds. An assistant professor at the university earns €2,000 net per month.
Picanço estimates that there is a community of 256,000 Brazilians in Germany. A survey shows that 51.2% of respondents have at least a graduate degree, 34.9% have a postgraduate degree, and about half of them are not even thinking of returning to Brazil. In France, respondents had at least a full university degree (76.2% of the sample), and a significant proportion of them had a postgraduate certificate (30.9%).
“We are losing a very high contingent of qualified people,” says Picanço, who sees a decline in “Goodbye Brazil” as very difficult.