In 2010, the census showed that nearly 600,000 immigrants were living in Brazil — mainly Portuguese and other Europeans. Ten years later, that number has more than doubled, reaching 1.3 million, according to a study presented this Tuesday (7) by the Observatory of International Migration (OBMigra).
The big difference in volume, however, is just one of the changes that have taken place in the last decade. The data also reveal a radical difference in the profile of this foreigner who came to live in Brazil: the countries of origin, the proportion of women, the average salary, the distribution across the country, all that has changed in this ten-year period.
“Since the post-war period, Brazil has not had such an effervescent and dynamic decade in terms of migration and refuge”, says Leonardo Cavalcanti, scientific coordinator at OBMigra and professor at UnB.
It was also a period of change in legislation on the subject, with the replacement of the Foreigners’ Statute, from the time of the military dictatorship, by the Migration Law, in 2017. This legal transformation was driven by the very increase in the arrival of immigrants to the country, he says Duval Fernandes, professor at PUC Minas. “The migration law brings great news, regarding the immigrant as a subject of rights.”
To outline the panorama of immigration in Brazil between 2011 and 2020, the Observatory’s survey analyzed government databases, including recognized refugees, asylum seekers and other immigrants.
For Tadeu de Oliveira, OBMigra’s statistical coordinator, despite the large increase in arrivals in recent years, the number —less than 1% of the Brazilian population— is low “considering a country with the territorial extension and size of Brazil’s economy”. “We are living a demographic transition, advancing towards aging and population reduction. Immigration has the potential to contribute to our country. We manage to absorb more”, he says.
See some revelations from the study:
From Europeans to Latin Americans
If in 2010 most immigrants living in Brazil were from Portugal, ten years later Venezuela and Haiti are the first two countries of origin. Of the ten main migratory flows to the Brazilian territory, only two are from countries in the global North: France and the USA.
This shift follows a global trend, with South-South migrations overlapping with South-to-Global North migrations. The barriers implemented by rich governments to veto the entry of immigrants are one of the explanations for the phenomenon. “From a country of emigration, we have also become a country of immigration and transit, that is, a path for those who want to go to other places”, says Duval Fernandes, from PUC Minas.
In the first five years of the decade, the nationality of newcomers has already started to change, with the arrival of many South Americans, Haitians, Senegalese, Congolese and Bangladeshis. From the second half onwards, Haitians and Venezuelans were responsible for consolidating Latin American and Caribbean immigration.
Most spread across Brazil
In 2010, more than 60% of immigrants were concentrated in the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Now, the two states together have reduced their share to 38%, with immigrants being distributed across other states.
Roraima, on the Venezuelan border, was the main one, with 21.9%. The states in the South region, with 16.8%, also started to receive many immigrants, as well as Amazonas, Minas Gerais and Bahia.
more feminine migration
Following another global trend, Brazil experienced a “feminization” of migrations, with more women arriving, especially Haitians and Venezuelans. Although men are still the majority, the more familiar profile of these two flows has increased the proportion of female immigrants.
In the case of refugees and asylum seekers, their share doubled from 2013 to 2019, from 22% to 46%.
This change does not mean, however, that they are reaching a greater degree of equality with men. The data show that immigrants receive 70% of the salary of male workers, and that their employment takes place in companies with a high level of labor exploitation.
more blacks and browns
The diversification of countries of origin has led to a change in the racial profile of immigrants. If in 2011, blacks and browns represented 13.9% of the total of those in the formal labor market, by the end of the decade they are already the majority (54.4%).
In the early years, the arrival of people from African countries, and especially from Haiti, caused the proportion of blacks to rise. The growth of brown colored workers started in 2018, with the Venezuelans.
Even though they are a minority, whites have received salaries in these ten years that are much higher than the rest.
mixed marriages
Immigrant men marry Brazilian women more than the other way around. Of the 65,000 marriages with at least one immigrant spouse in the decade, 62.2% were this type of arrangement. Then come Brazilian men married to immigrant women (28.6%) and, finally, marriages between two immigrants (9.2%).
This last group has been growing since 2017, but it is still inferior to mixed unions.
For Tadeu Oliveira, one hypothesis is that immigrant women wait longer, until they have a more defined insertion in Brazilian society, to opt for marriage and motherhood.
schooling drops
At the beginning of the decade, among immigrants in the formal labor market, the majority (52%) had completed higher education. Today, they are 21.2% of the total, with secondary education being the most common (44.5%) and the proportion of those without instruction or with incomplete elementary school having risen from 5.8% to 14.1%.
This composition reflects the entry of new immigrants from poor or developing countries, unlike previous flows, in which more educated European workers predominated.
More formal employment, lower wages
From 2011 to 2020, the number of immigrants in the Brazilian formal labor market tripled, from 62,400 to 181,300.
Their average income, however, has been falling over the years, unlike the general average, which has remained stable, observes André Simões, responsible for this part of the study. “One explanation is the occupational insertion of immigrants, who have been occupying jobs in the agro-industrial sector, in the poultry and swine slaughtering sectors,” he says, referring especially to Haitians and Venezuelans.
Considering all nationalities, the average monthly income of immigrants (R$4,900) is higher than the national average. But this number does not reflect the reality of the majority of the group: 65% earn up to 2 minimum wages.
The average is pushed up by the high salaries of workers of some nationalities: while in 2020 the average income of a Norwegian in Brazil was R$33,000 a month, that of a Venezuelan was R$1,521, for example. In 2019, Latin American refugees had an income 53% lower than the average salary in the general market.
Access to social benefits
The number of families with at least one immigrant member registered in the Single Registry for Social Programs (CadÚnico) rose from 12 thousand in 2012 to 132 thousand in 2020. Of these, 44% receive Bolsa Família, 21% receive the Social Electricity Tariff and 18 % received Pandemic Emergency Relief last year. Venezuelans, Haitians, Bolivians and Paraguayans are the main nationalities among those registered.
More Chinese among executives
The composition of a specific group of immigrants, those who move to Brazil on demand from a local company, has also changed in the last decade. They are usually men, with management positions, high salaries and residents of the Southeast. Although Europeans and North Americans still have a strong presence among them, there is a growing demand for Chinese workers, most of them working in the infrastructure sectors for electricity, telecommunications, water, sewage and wholesale technology. On the other hand, the number of Latin Americans among these executives has been falling.
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