Citizens of Venezuela have been consolidated since 2019 as the main migrant workforce entering the Brazilian labor market, in a scenario that reflects the mass migration generated by the chronic economic and humanitarian crisis in the neighboring country.
As a result, there is a redesign of the profile of the last decade – Venezuelans are replacing nationals from Haiti and Paraguay, who, at least since 2011, were the ones who entered the most formal positions.
From January to April, Venezuelans were responsible for the highest balance of net admissions — a figure that already subtracts the number of dismissals — of a single nationality in the last eleven years: 9,100.
As a result, they represent 74% of the total admissions of migrants in the formal market, according to a report by the Observatory of International Migration (OBMigra). For purposes of comparison, in the same period the figure for Haitians was 1,116; for Paraguayans, 640.
The explanation is multifactorial. The expressive volume of Venezuelans who seek refuge in Brazil enters the account, entering especially from the North region. The scenario worsened in 2016 and, in the first four months of this year, Venezuelans accounted for more than 80% of the 17,775 asylum requests in the country.
There are also public management efforts — albeit with criticism — to bring immigrants into the job market, especially through the internalization strategy, which takes Venezuelans who enter through Roraima to other states with the support of UN agencies.
Finding a place in the formal market, however, does not cancel out the difficulties. The social vulnerability with which they arrive in Brazil causes many to accept poorly paid jobs with precarious conditions, says João Carlos Jarochinski, professor of the master’s degree in Society and Borders at UFRR (Federal University of Roraima).
“Compared to other nationalities, Venezuelans have a higher education level,” he explains. “But our difficulty in thinking about policies for revalidating diplomas and reinserting qualified professionals means that these people are offered a type of low-paid work task.”
To the numbers: the average monthly remuneration of Venezuelan nationals in the Brazilian market in the first four months of the year was R$ 1,596, one of the lowest compared to other nationalities. 11 years ago, the value was R$ 8,701, according to data from the General Register of Employed and Unemployed (Caged) compiled by OBMigra.
The difference, explains Jarochinski, reflects the changing profile of migration. If, at the beginning of the last decade, sectors of the elite and middle class still emigrated to Brazil, many linked to the oil sector, today citizens of the poorest and most vulnerable strata emigrate.
Inequality, as in the entire formal market, is reflected when it comes to gender. A survey carried out by the Movese project, linked to UN Women and supported by the Luxembourg government, showed that the average income of people from Venezuela who were internalized is R$1,450. For Venezuelans, it is R$1,177 – 20% less.
Immigrants are mainly in the meatpacking sector, domestic work and the service sector, says the UFRR professor, services with little added value in terms of salary. Often, they replace the migrant workforce, mostly Haitians, who have left the country.
The factor also weighs in the balance to understand the change in the profile of immigrants in the formal market. Databases and experts have reported the departure of Haitians from the country since 2019. In the first four months of that year, around 5,800 citizens of the Central American country sought refuge in Brazil.
In the same period this year, there were 66, even though the nation faces a serious economic, political and social crisis — the drop in numbers, however, also represents the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, when the volume of migrations decreased for all nationalities.
The reasons behind the departure of Haitians are still being studied by experts. Jarochinski says that the economic crisis, aggravated by Covid, is a major factor in the profile of Haitian migration, of sending remittances to relatives who stayed in the country.
There is also what the professor calls hypermobility: Haitians have networks in countries other than Brazil, such as Chile and the USA. If the situation is bad here, many face dangerous routes to other destinations.
“For many Venezuelans, this is their first migratory experience. They leave the country with a high degree of vulnerability, and there is a certain fear of trying a new migration”, he says. But the profile, he points out, can change.
With the Venezuelan crisis and the formation of a “country of dependents” —with a predominance of children and the elderly, beyond the economically active age— the economic scenario may soon force Venezuelan nationals to seek other migration routes, where, few, they consolidate new support networks.
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