Operational manager of a hotel in Governador Valadares (MG), Eduardo José Fernandes Ramos, 59, went to the United States and stayed there for 17 years, from 1989 to 2006. During this period, he even lived in Canada for some time.
His intention was to stay in American territory for a few years and then return to Brazil to get on with his life with the money he saved — the amount that enabled him to buy a car and a house on his return.
“When you go there and have a regimented life, you can make good money. I gathered some and brought it here,” said Ramos. He has three sisters who continue to live in the US and managed to regularize their stay in the country.
Like him, many people from Governador Valadares and municipalities in the region, which historically have the largest number of emigrants, stayed for a while in the US and then returned to Brazil. Now entire families are moving with no plans to return.
This has even caused the emptying of cities in the east of Minas Gerais. In Tarumirim, which has around 14,500 inhabitants, 1,800 families have left the municipality this year. In Alpercata, 5% of the population left, around 350 people.
“Waiting for people to return just because it is their hometown is no longer important. They are no longer creating ties with the municipality”, says the mayor of Alpercata, Rafael França.
The movement of families leaving Brazil has been noticed by researchers, political and police authorities and by those who welcome these people in the United States. THE leaf published reports in recent days that allow us to understand this scenario.
Sandra Nicoli, historian and master in integrated land management, explained that emigration in Governador Valadares began in the 1960s. This “culture of migration” spread to the region’s municipalities from the late 1970s onwards.
The 1980s saw a huge growth in the movement of people who chose to leave the country due to the Brazilian economic crisis — the period became known as the “lost decade”. At the time, most people who migrated were young, traveling alone and thinking about returning to Brazil.
Currently, the migration movement is characterized by a greater number of families organizing to live permanently in the USA. The predominant profile is of people who seek manual service, but there are also citizens who leave public office, companies and micro-enterprises behind.
The decision to return is no longer included in the migration project. In many cases, people enter irregularly, but there are families with legal access to the United States.
“These are families that have a minimal financial condition, have a house, a car, a small business, rural property, but do not see a future perspective if they continue to live in Brazil. The idea of return is not permeated in the migration project, [as famílias] they want to migrate and stay,” explained the researcher.
Nicoli also pointed out that, after the peak of emigration in the 1980s, growth returned from 2015 due to an economic, political and environmental scenario that led to this decision. However, according to the expert, the peak of this movement took place from the year 2018.
Governador Valadares and surrounding municipalities that are part of the Rio Doce hydrographic basin were affected in 2015 by Samarco’s mud, after the collapse of the ore tailings dam in Fundão, in the district of Bento Rodrigues, in Mariana (MG).
With the worsening of the current economic and political crisis in Brazil, the growth of the migratory flow continued in 2019, but was reduced in 2020 due to the sanitary crisis and the restrictive measures resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. However, those who had decided to emigrate and did not do so during this period were already preparing to leave the country in 2021, which registered a jump in the number of migrants.
Nicoli added that, although most Brazilian migrants choose the US, since the 2000s there are other destinations on the rise, such as Portugal, Italy and England. In American territory, Massachusetts is still the state that houses the majority of Brazilians in the country.
Living in Middlesex, New Jersey, Marcos Silva, 21, is not thinking about returning to Brazil. He has a father and two brothers legally living in the US. Working in the civil construction industry, he receives weekly US$ 1,120 (R$ 6,333) even though he is in an irregular situation.
“I no longer see Brazil as an address. Here [EUA] it’s totally different and we have a lot more opportunity, I’m managing to live peacefully,” he said.
Silva arrived in the country last year and had advantages that not all migrants have when they try to go to the US: family members in a legal situation and a minimum structure to start over.
Those who cannot count on this possibility often end up incurring huge debts when they enter the country irregularly. This is because they pay up to US$ 25,000 (R$ 141.3 thousand) to people who promote clandestine migration.
The consul general of Brazil in Boston, Benedicto Fonseca Filho, explained to leaf that newly arrived families in the US end up staying with relatives and friends in precarious conditions. “Often in violation of local occupation and security rules, which has multiplied cases of threat of eviction,” he said.
People who promote migration always find a “way” so that the “client” can enter American territory. Fernandes Ramos managed to enter “legally” in 1989 as a tourist, but with a forged passport.
“They [agentes que promovem a migração irregular] they had a passport with a visa. This page was placed in the passport that has my photo. I arrived through legal channels and stayed in this situation until the tourist can stay in the country,” said Ramos.
Like him, rural producer Aldair Martins, 70, entered with a forged passport, although he traveled for a temporary stay. In his case, the two children were already in the US. “Today I don’t think about going there. One day, who knows, I might try [conseguir legalmente] the visa. At the time, I wanted to see my granddaughters and I wanted to go to get something else,” he explained.
Federal Police delegate Cristiano Campidelli explained that it is practically impossible to forge the passport since a new model of the document has been used. In addition to several security mechanisms, the current version has a chip that poses obstacles to counterfeiters.
The update, however, does not preclude technology-independent strategies for entering the US. Campidelli explained that there are still many people who cross the desert, jump over fences and walls and cross rivers by boat or swimming in a covert manner so as not to be caught by the authorities.
After former President Donald Trump called for an end to the separation of immigrant families, however, people who promote emigration started to use children.
Thus, interest in the “cai cai” grew, a system in which a person is accompanied by an underage first-degree relative, surrenders to the US authorities and is released to respond to the process in freedom.
“There was a ‘cai falls’ boom in 2019, at the time of former president Donald Trump. But this old fashion, crossing the border whether by river, desert or jumping fence, has never stopped, also because many people don’t have one. child to take,” said the delegate.
There are also those who turn themselves in alone to American agents to make a formal request for asylum. In such cases, it is common for those responsible for promoting illegal emigration to teach “clients” tactics to convince the authorities. The most common strategy is the allegation that the applicant is being threatened with death in Brazil or has been tortured by public agents such as police officers and politicians.
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