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Brazil is again a country of immigrants: two million expats returned in five years

Monday, October 31st 2011 - 19:33 UTC
Full article 11 comments

Millions of foreigners have moved into Brazil attracted by the economic expansion of recent years, while the number of Brazilians leaving the country has dropped dramatically, according to official data released last week. Read full article

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  • Think

    Bravo Brazil !

    And in the best of South- American tradition, we accept everybody....
    We don't demand Integration.
    We don't demand Assimilation.
    We don't demand Bank Guarantees.
    We don't demand University Degrees.

    We even tolerate those ”Geoffward'ers” that, without any shame, try to subvert the constitutional order of our Countries by openly praising and supporting military coups like the one in Honduras 2009 under the sorry ideological excuse of “perceived corruption”………….

    Oct 31st, 2011 - 08:09 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • stick up your junta

    @1

    I take it you are having a larf

    Racial Discrimination in Argentina

    Politicians have used rising crime rates in the metropolitan Buenos Aires area to fuel xenophobia and to argue for further restrictions on immigrants. They blame immigrants for the rise in crime, despite the government's own statistics demonstrating that immigrants were not responsible for the majority of crimes. News reports on the proposed legislation referred to foreign workers as an ”invasion' and also blamed them for lower wages and high unemployment.

    http://academic.udayton.edu/race/06hrights/georegions/southamerica/argentina01.htm

    Oct 31st, 2011 - 08:26 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • xbarilox

    @ 2 you need an antidepressant.

    Oct 31st, 2011 - 09:10 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Malvinero1

    take it you are having a larf

    Racial Discrimination in Argentina

    Really,you know nothing about the inmigration proble.The inmigration laws are way too loose in Argentina.75% of the population making th eshantitown in Buenos Aires are poor foreigners.....If you do not know,do not write....

    Oct 31st, 2011 - 09:13 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • stick up your junta

    @3

    What ones works for you?

    @4 tell your mate think, he loves them

    Oct 31st, 2011 - 09:27 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Fido Dido

    1
    “600.000 undocumented aliens ”

    As far I know, they do not use the Portuguese words for undocument aliens in Brazil. I do remember when there was an “Immigration legal and illegal” debate in the US, during the Bush admistration, suddenly there was also the same debate in Brazil, during the Lula admistion, but without anger, though many Brazilians were not happy with legalizing the “illegal immigrants”.

    2
    How times have changed and is still changing.

    We don't demand Integration.
    We don't demand Assimilation.
    We don't demand Bank Guarantees.
    We don't demand University Degrees.

    Actually think, i don't know about Argentina, but as I have been taught, in Brazil they, goverment, does demand certain things, like the last 2 subjects, for certain groups who want to live and work in Brazil. Brazil has one of the most strict immigration laws in the world. Mexico is more tougher, while Europe is cluless how to handle it because of the EU rules and the US with it's wide open border policy (though more and more people leave because of the economy, still small, but growing slowly). The Brazilian federal government does not get much or not at all involved in integration and assimilation, but the people, the Brazilian people do, though you won't be pushed to forget your true roots/culture/mother language(s), because there is a believe it will happen automatic that you feel home there (and if not, you go back home) and when it comes to language, you learn Portuguese, because you have no other choice, nothing will be translated for you in public, you're on your own. Brazilians, on average, are people with patience.

    Oct 31st, 2011 - 10:35 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Forgetit87

    Think,

    In the past Brazil had laws forbidding immigrants from forming colonies and isolating themselves in distinct areas of the cities. I don't know how Argentina dealt with immigrants, but Brazil had a very “hands on” approach. The governments saw that no cultural or ethnic identities would be left unassimilated by the broader national identity. To be frank, that is what I prefer. It's part of human nature to be hostile, suspicious, fearful or contemptous to that which we find different. The only way to remedy those feelings is by doing away with such perceived differences - by emphasizing what people have in common (a national identity, for example). Just look at the US as an example of a country where ethinic identities weren't subsumed by the national one - where they were instead embraced. The US is nowadays a country deeply divided by racial resentment. The Blacks were in the past forbidden to, say, study in mainstream universities - a form of discrimination; and the way the government has found to address that issue is by imposing racial quotas: again founded on discrimination and division. It's not healthy for a society to be divided in deep ways, either because of race, class, religion or culture. I think Plato said once that a divided country is not a unified country anymore; it's instead a multitude of nations where one has loyalty to the others, thus resulting in an unstable whole on the brink of rebellion.

    Nov 01st, 2011 - 12:54 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Forgetit86

    Interesting info, Fido. I didn't know there was a demand that foreigners have a university degree. I've even read that some Haitians, escaping from the disorder brought by the earthquake, were granted permanent visas when they came to the country. And even though some had finished their university studies, most were employed in low-level jobs in manufacturing, so I believe most of them were unqualified labourers. To be frank, I hope they're exceptions. Brazil has enough uneducated people. In contrast to previous waves of Portuguese immigrants, of whom I descend, the Portuguese who are coming along now at least are qualified professionals, which is what Brazil needs. It takes time to improve educational institutions, and the fastest way to meet our needs is by incorporating qualified professionals - even foreign ones where the locals are in shortage.

    Nov 01st, 2011 - 01:08 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Fido Dido

    Forget,
    Of course Brazil would demand qualified immigrants. Why ask for more if you already have them. That's Europe. Both have it in their book of rules for immigration, but here comes the difference..one enforce them (Brazil) and one doesn't because it believes it's all fine, we save the world..etc etc...but create issues/hate and frustration problems, totally lost.

    what I read in liberal LA and NY times (yes suddenly those newspapers have more news about what's happening in Brazil, wonder why) the haitians, who were granted permanent status, were poor and educated made an increddicble journey from Haiti to be in Brazil and entered the nation illegal.

    “most were employed in low-level jobs in manufacturing”
    Come on, that happens everywhere. You cannot expect that most foreigners enter the country with a high degree and a month later working in a fancy office selling, let say, credit default swaps. Except if he or she has a network in Brazil, that's makes a totally different situation. Same what happened to me here in the US. thanks to my network, working where I am, since I was allowed to work in the US, went smooth. If I go to Brazil, I have a network, though I cannot expect it will go smooth. by the way, Brazil is not for beginners and it's true, seen it (but not felt it) with my friends there from Norway, Germany and Holland. In reality, it's much tougher there than in the US.

    Nov 01st, 2011 - 01:58 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Forgetit86

    Yeah, on websites by foreigners in Brazil this is what I've read - that Brazil is a very tough place. This is true for locals, but foreigners do have some challenges of their own. For example, it's hard to get a job if you don't speak Portuguese, even when the language is not essential to the job. And this is to say nothing of the amount of bureaucracy one has to go through in order to get the proper papers to have a meaningful life in the country.

    And you're right about recent immigrants being forced to take on low-end jobs even when they have significant qualification.

    Nov 01st, 2011 - 02:13 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Fido Dido

    The foreigners from the US and Europe (I just name those two as an example) who go to Brazil, and have in their head, that they will get hired for any job, because they are from the US/Europe, will fail miserable. You would think with all the information more available then ever, they would know better, it's amazing how they still have that ignorance/arrogance in their head.

    Foreigners in Brazil succeed mostly because of help and with their own strenght and by time integrate. Most immigrants from Europe integrate faster into society of the new nation they are than people from the US. Those foreigners who succeeded by obtaining their permanent visa will always explain the Brazilian who are born in Brazil and never had dealt with immigration anywhere else, how bad bureaucracy is but how amazingly big and burden it is and that's only to the begin.

    It's time that Brazilians do something about that, but should not make it tooo flexible. You don't want to end up like Europe or the US it all where immigration is already a complete nightmare. with that I mean, the integration has failed and is still failing. There is no perfect system but there is a middle way. Brazil is now in a time than can learn from those experiences what is happening in other countries.

    If you don't speak Portuguese in Brazil, than you have a problem and should stay like that. Another reason immigration fails in Europe is..big government (elected by the people direct /indirect) translate everything, from a to z for the immigrants legal and illegal. This is still a discussion, for years and nothing has changed and it won't changed. the locals are brainwashed that it's “normal”. People in Brazil can learn from that experiment today. The entering of foreigners in Brazil should not be to difficult, but neither to easy, a system what is not easy to create, but possible. Once you're entering first world status, you might get first world problems..that will become your nightmare. The US is an example

    Nov 01st, 2011 - 05:31 am - Link - Report abuse 0

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