The image of Brazil as a welcoming land does not hold if we look at its slavery past —or at the present of many black immigrants arriving in the country. For sociologist Alex Vargem, 41, who grew up amid family militancy in Afro-descendant movements and has been researching African immigration in São Paulo for 20 years, both the State and Brazilian society have historically adopted a selective attitude towards foreigners, based on color of the skin.
This can be seen, according to Vargem, by several old and recent examples — from the post-abolition laws that encouraged the arrival of workers from Europe and prohibited the coming of people from Africa to the difficulties that Haitian and African immigrants currently face in getting good jobs in Brazil.
He notes that these immigrants face both episodes of explicit xenophobia and more subtle difficulties related to structural racism that, in his opinion, have contributed to the departure of thousands of Haitians living in Brazil along dangerous routes towards the US.
He says that European migration cannot be equated with the kidnapping of enslaved Africans over 350 years. “Brazilians with white or Asian ancestors are proud of their Spanish father, German, Japanese great-grandfather. That’s beautiful, that’s beautiful. But we Afro-Brazilians don’t know our origins because these records have been erased. This is an open wound.”
Why do you consider that the idea that Brazil is a welcoming country in relation to foreigners is a myth? In debates about migration, there is that phrase: “We are all migrants”. I have a critical eye on this because, if we look at the founding of Brazil, we see that the country was built on the basis of slavery. Which welcoming country are we talking about? A state that sponsored slavery, which enslaved people the most, the last to have abolition.
And after the abolition, we had hygienist policies to whiten the Brazilian population. In addition to encouraging the arrival of Europeans, there were several decrees prohibiting the entry of Africans into Brazil.
Brazilians with white or Asian ancestors know their origins, they are proud of their Spanish father, German and Japanese great-grandfather. This is beautiful, this is beautiful. But we Afro-Brazilians do not know our origins because these records have been erased. That’s an open wound. The people’s own surnames were erased, many received the surname of the family that enslaved them. The case of these men and women who were kidnapped, thrown overboard, and who suffered a combination of violence cannot be equated with European migration. It would romanticize the story.
Currently, is the reception of Brazilians to immigrants also selective? Yes. The African who arrives here today is seen as the refugee, a passive victim waiting for help. And of course there are people who go through adversity, but many are intellectuals, professionals, students. We have Africans doing cutting-edge research in large universities, but that does not exempt them from being discriminated against, called names, from suffering xenophobia. In 2007, at UnB, they set fire to three apartments where African students lived while they slept. At Unesp, in 2012, they made racist graffiti against exchange students from Africa. Often the violence that is not manifested against the bodies of black Brazilians is manifested against the bodies of immigrants who are here.
Is the black immigrant not seen as someone with talent who can help develop Brazil? The immigrant black is inserted in our context of structural racism. There are academics with doctoral degrees in France, who could be in key posts, but are unable to rise. Before the advent of affirmative action, many elite white college students had never sat next to a black person in their school career until they went to study with two or three African exchange students. This was a shock for these Brazilians and for Africans as well.
Is it common for black immigrants to discover what racism is here? It happens a lot. In African countries there are differences from an ethnic point of view, which is another reality. Here there is explicit racism, name calling or violence, but there is also subtle racism. For many of them, understanding this takes effort. In this pedagogical process of understanding Brazil, they begin to realize that, despite having all the potential, they are not able to make much progress. And then I make a constructive criticism of the third sector: even in organizations that do a good job with migration, we don’t see black immigrants —or Brazilian Afro-descendants— in coordination positions. They are hired to open the door or provide assistance, but they are not on the supervisory board, on the board.
Many immigrants are victims of structural racism without even recognizing it. And this structural racism is producing a mass of people migrating to other countries.
Are you referring to the Haitians and Africans who leave Brazil migrating to the US? Yes. When you see the narratives [desses imigrantes], the person will speak well about Brazil, will say that they love the country, but that they need to leave because they cannot get enough money for their survival. This also has to do with structural racism. The subject can have training, a diploma, but he can [nem] precarious jobs.
What other difficulties do black immigrants face in Brazil? It starts with borderline xenophobia. Non-whites are more likely to be turned away from airports, even if they have visas, hotel reservations, and all the prerogatives. And it still happens that Africans arrive here hidden in the holds of cargo ships. The person is on an escape route, sees a ship with a Canadian flag, for example, bypasses security at the port and enters the hold. The ship calls in Santos, they are discovered and sent to their countries, which violates the principle of non-return [tratados internacionais que proíbem a repatriação de imigrantes que pedem refúgio]. In other words, there is the law, the legal safeguard, but how is this applied at the end?
Do you see any parallels between these cases and the slave-owning colonial past? We can make some reflections, and one of them is that it takes us to slave ships. In 2003, on a Chinese ship in Recife, a group of Africans was thrown overboard by the crew. Luckily, they were rescued by a fishing boat. In 2011, Nigerians were imprisoned on a Turkish-flagged ship in the port of Paranaguá because border agents considered them a threat to public health and national security. Even today, Africans arrive in the cellars, suffering all kinds of violence.
Is the racial dimension taken into account in public policies for immigrants in Brazil? We have to racialize the migration debate. The immigrant is sometimes seen as an abstract, colorless subject. The 2017 migration law was a major step forward, but immigrants still need to be guaranteed the right to speak and to make decisions. It’s not just about being decorated at the council, they must occupy these spaces, you can’t just be like the old days, where you cook, sing in the choir, everyone claps their hands and leaves.
Is inclusion by culture limited? It’s really cool that Brazilians get closer to immigrant populations through cultural, food and dance issues. The problem is when there are no other possibilities, other doors close and the person only has what to do. That’s the criticism. It is necessary to go further. Sometimes Brazilian society accepts the person who beats the drum, but manifests xenophobia towards those who transcend these social and territorial limits, who want to give their opinion and be in decision-making spaces.
Are African and Haitian immigrants organised? Is racism an agenda of these movements?
São Paulo today has a multiplicity of immigrant groups and associations that are claiming their place of speech for different agendas. Some look at the Brazilian racial issue, others at issues that affect all immigrants. And it is interesting to note that many groups take to the streets to give visibility to what is happening in their countries, to denounce a massacre, a genocide. There is the community of Biafra [região no leste nigeriano que declarou independência em 1967] taking a stand when a leadership is arrested, groups from Angola and Nigeria questioning the local government. It is a transnational activism, which wants to draw the attention of Brazilians to what is happening on the other side of the world, as Brazil often does not look to Africa.
Do the Brazilian black movements have a dialogue with the agendas of black immigrants? Many Brazilian social movements do not know what the immigrant’s life is like, and some African groups do not recognize themselves in the agendas of Brazilian black movements. In the last four years, some groups have come together to build a joint agenda, there is a commotion in the Brazilian black movement when a black immigrant is murdered, but there is still no consolidated common agenda. The two sides are getting to know each other.
Alex Vargem, 41
Sociologist at PUC-SP and graduated in refugee law at the International Institute of Humanitarian Law (IIHL), in Italy, he is a doctoral candidate in social sciences at Unicamp. Advisor to the Commission on Human Rights, Migrants and the Fight against Xenophobia of the State Council for the Defense of Human Rights (Condepe), he is a member of Afro-descendant movements and has been researching the theme of African immigrants and refugees in Brazil for over 20 years.
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