Brazilian Immigration to the United States
Historically a country whose citizens have seldom emigrated, Brazil had yet to experience a consistent and significant outflow until the 1980s. Almost all Brazilian immigrants in the United States have cited similar economic reasons for leaving their home in search of prosperity elsewhere. The term ?economic refugees? has come to describe such immigrants who have come to the US in search of higher wages, a lower cost of living, and a desire to escape the hyperinflations that plagued Brazil up until 1994. Yet even since 1994, when inflation ended and prices stabilized, middle and lower-class Brazilians have experienced an average loss of a third of purchasing power in their salaries. Many Brazilians come to the United States knowing that they can earn as much as four times what they earn in Brazil working the same jobs. This opportunity to accrue significant savings is perhaps the single greatest factor in influencing Brazilian immigration to the country. Furthermore, despite the fact that more Brazilians than ever are attending university, there has not been growth in the professional job market to match the growth in attainment of higher education. In addition to being ?economic refugees,? many Brazilian immigrants have come to the United States, in part, to experience the first-world modernity that has been popularized and glamorized in Brazilian pop-culture.
The greatest period of Brazilian immigration to the United States took place between 1985 and 1987, largely in response to a period of severe hyperinflation in Brazil. As early as 1980, however, the census found that 44,000 native-born Brazilians were living in the U.S. Immigration has continued throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s. Many Brazilians enter the country on tourist visas and remain once their visas expire, making them undocumented. The increasing difficulty of obtaining a tourist visa has resulted in the growing popularity of entering illegally via the Mexico border. After 2001, the U.S. government also imposed stricter immigration controls that make it harder to work without legal papers. Enchantment with the United States also faded after 2008 in response to a downturn in the world economy that has left Americans and Brazilian immigrants alike with fewer opportunities for employment and economic prosperity.
Most Brazilians arrive in the United States with a long-term plan of spending three to five years working and amassing significant savings that can be used to purchase property or a business, so they work hard with the plan to return to their country with capital to invest in Brazil. Social scientists studying patterns of migration, however, have noted that many Brazilians travel frequently back and forth between the two countries. This phenomenon is known as ?yo-yo migration.? It describes the fact that Brazilians find economic opportunities in the United States but experience difficulty in breaking their ties with Brazil. A 1999 study found that only one third of Brazilians living in New York City intended to stay in the United States, a fifth were undecided about their futures, and the rest planned to return home. As previously noted, recent immigration restrictions and the economic slowdown in the U.S. have reversed these trends and more Brazilians are returning to their homeland.
Brazilian Presence in the United States
The United States is home to the largest population of Brazilians in the world outside of Brazil. The majority of these Brazilians live in New York, Massachusetts, Florida, and California. However, smaller but significant communities have formed in places like Pompano Beach, Florida; Danbury, Connecticut; and Martha?s Vineyard, Massachusetts. The Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs estimated in 2007 that 1.2 million Brazilians live in the United States, but the American Community Survey accounted for only 346,000. This massive discrepancy can largely be attributed to the undocumented status of an estimated 70% of Brazilians living in the U.S. who are underreported in these studies. Furthermore, Brazilian nationality is particularly hard to categorize, making it even more difficult to track Brazilians living in the United States. For instance, on the 2000 census, Brazilians that marked they were ?Hispanic? and wrote ?Brazilian? were not counted as Hispanic because they do not originate from a culture or nation where Spanish is the spoken language.
Brazilian immigration to the United States is primarily a middle and lower class phenomenon. Generally, poorer and impoverished Brazilians do not have the opportunity and financial ability to obtain a visa and purchase a plane ticket or pay for a person to smuggle them across the U.S. border. The majority of Brazilians in the United States are of lighter complexions, which reveals the ways in which skin color and economic opportunities are inextricably intertwined in Brazilian society. Poorer Brazilians tend to be of darker complexions or ?black,? while Brazilians with more financial resources who are upwardly mobile tend to have fairer skin.
Brazilian Experience in the United States
While one can note differences in personal experience depending on the state and city where Brazilians reside, there are many consistent patterns. Most Brazilians spend their first weeks in this country living with a Brazilian family or friends that host them temporarily and help them find stable employment and a place to live. Brazilians rarely live alone, which is consistent with cultural patterns in Brazil. In fact, the Portuguese term puleiros has been used to describe crowded rooms where many Brazilians live together. The conditions in these puleiros are usually poor, but the affordability and sense of community they offer may make them appealing to Brazilians who have just arrived in the United States.
In terms of community, there are a striking number of religious Brazilian organizations in comparison to the dearth of secular ones. Interestingly, many of these religious organizations are Evangelical churches rather than Catholic, despite the fact that an estimated 70% of Brazilians are Catholic. These Evangelical churches often form the center of a Brazilian community and offer support far beyond that of religious services, including assistance in finding employment and housing. The popularity of Evangelical churches among Brazilians is attributed to their sovereignty, which allows them to operate as both religious and social organizations, while Catholic churches must follow a more strict set of rules and look to national Catholic entities for funding and guidance.
Brazilians in the United States are often loathe to be mistaken for people from Spanish-speaking Latin America. Many Brazilian immigrants believe that the racism and prejudice they have experienced is often a case of mistaken identity, as many Americans consider or judge Brazilians to be Hispanic. Following deep cultural notions that make Brazilians consider themselves unique and different from people residing in other countries in Latin America, Brazilian immigrants often times have made special efforts to distinguish themselves as a unique nationality and a community that is distinct from Spanish-speaking and/or Hispanic communities. Another interesting change in cultural patterns of Brazilian immigration is the transformation of gender roles. Women, often as frequently as men, are employed and make significant financial contributions to the household. In Brazil, even among many middle and lower class families, women often do not work, and those that do contribute what is considered to be ?supplementary? income to the family. The ability to earn an income and contribute to a family?s economic survival can shift relationships within a family and afford many women more autonomy.
Many immigrants have been disillusioned by their inability to find employment that matches their credentials. Brazilians who hold university degrees or are trained professionals often struggle to find employment they consider ?worthy? of their educational background. Many are employed in working-class jobs that entail varying degrees of physical labor as construction workers, waiters, and kitchen staff, janitors and maids. These jobs rarely provide any upward mobility or benefits. Furthermore, despite the vast number of colleges and universities in the United States, many Brazilians from ?generation 1.5,? those who are native-born Brazilians but arrived at a young age, have been unable to receive in-state tuition, scholarships, or financial aid because of their undocumented status and/or status as international students. As a result, many have been unable to pursue higher education and others have become high-school dropouts. This barrier in access to higher education may prove to be limiting for many Brazilian immigrants in the long-term.
Further Reading
- For more information on recent trends in Brazilian immigration and present issues regarding the Brazilian community in the U.S. read Maxine Margolis?s ?Brazilian Immigration to the U.S.: Future Research & Issues for the New Millennium? in Becoming Brazucas: Brazilian Immigration to the U.S. (Harvard University Press).
Sources
- Margolis, Maxine. Encyclopedia of Immigration, Vol. 3, ed. Elliot Barkan (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2010), s.v. ?Brazilians.?
- . Encyclopedia of Diasporas, ed. Melvin Ember, Carol R. Ember, and Ian Skoggard (New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum, 2004), s.v ?Brazilians in the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan and Paraguay.?