The flight of Brazilians to other countries, especially to the United States, gained strength last year, with the worsening of the economic crisis in the country and the permission of people vaccinated against Covid-19 to go abroad.
In 2021, 17% of the Brazilians who left the country did not return, the highest number in the Federal Police survey, which began in 2010, when 7% of those who had left did not return. In 2019, that portion was 5%.
According to the Ministry of Justice’s International Migration Observatory (Obmigra), the continued negative balance of the movement of Brazilians and migrants residing in the country has proven to be “structural”.
This scenario is also confirmed by data on remittances from abroad to Brazil, deportations, and detentions at the U.S. border, which hit a record high last year.
Part of this flow continues to be people with low education who use illegal schemes to cross overland from Mexico to the U.S.
But, although more numerous, those Brazilians who pay for the services of coyotes to complete the crossing are only part of the picture of emigration. In recent years, and especially with the improvement of the pandemic, the number of professionals and families seeking American visas, to undertake or continue studies, has also increased.
Antônio Tadeu de Oliveira, Obmigra’s statistics coordinator, says that the large number of arrests of Brazilians at the U.S. border reinforces the perception of the occurrence of negative migratory balances, i.e., more Brazilians leaving the country.
“From 2012 to now, when the economic scenario worsens, we start to see this movement of outflows outweighing inflows,” says Mr. Oliveira. According to him, this is reinforced when we look at data from the Federal Police and the Federal Revenue (of people who stopped income to deliver their income tax returns in Brazil), as well as the number of arrests and deportations, and the increase in remittances sent from Brazilians living abroad. He notes the U.S. is the main destination for Brazilian emigration.
“With the pandemic, there were border closures and reduced flow. But what we have seen now is people here seeking opportunities in other countries. Not only Brazilians, but also foreigners,” he continues.
One of the signs of the increased flow of migrants, the number of arrests of Brazilians attempting to enter the U.S. hit a record last year. The average daily number of arrests of Brazilians at the border rose to 148.8 in 2021 in fiscal year 2021 (October 2020 to September 2021) and 18.6 in 2020 from 49.3 in 2019, according to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
In a December report, CBP said that arrests skyrocketed in fiscal year 2021 for countries that historically have not been common sources of migration at the U.S.-Mexico border, highlighting Brazilians and Ecuadorians, for example.
Brazilians ranked sixth among nationalities detained in 2021 by the CBP. The figures coincide with the number of Brazilians deported from abroad, which is the highest in a decade. In 2011 there were 2,721 Brazilians deported. In 2019 there were 2,348, slowing to 1,586 in 2020. Last year, however, the number grew to 2,449.
Sociologist Sueli Siqueira, a specialist in the migration of Brazilians to the U.S. at the Vale do Rio Doce University, says that the profile of today’s migrant is different from that of previous decades.
In the past, the most common thing was adults traveling alone and looking for ways where they could not be noticed by the police. Today, whole families migrate and want to be noticed by the authorities.
“Now they turn themselves in, as if they were falling, which gave rise to the name ‘cai cai’ [falling] for the agents or coyotes who make this crossing possible,” says Ms. Siqueira. “Since they are with children, they are detained, but no longer separated, as was the case under [former U.S. President Donald] Trump. A date is set to present themselves to U.S. immigration and they are given an ankle monitor or cell phone [by which they are monitored]. Sometimes the deadline to report is quite long and it gives them time to settle down and get a house, a job.”
She adds that not only are whole families migrating nowadays, but the intention is to go and not come back.
“They are entire families, with children, mother and mother-in-law, who close their homes and have no intention of returning. Before they migrated, earned money, and came back. There was the idea of returning and sending remittances to relatives. Today, the intention is to migrate with the whole family and not return,” she says.
Even with this change, the amount of remittances sent by Brazilians living abroad has been growing, especially those from the U.S.
According to Central Bank data, total international remittances sent from Brazilians living abroad to Brazil rose to $3.8 billion in 2021 and $3.3 billion in 2020 from $2.9 billion in 2019. Of the $500 million more sent last year, compared to 2020, over $450 million came from the U.S.
The U.S. tops the ranking of countries of origin of remittances to Brazil. In 2021, more than $2 billion left the U.S., 28.9% more than the previous year. The UK came second, followed by Portugal, Switzerland, and Spain.
Maxine Margolis, anthropologist at the University of Florida and author of the books “An Invisible Minority: Brazilians in New York City” (2009) and “Goodbye Brazil: Brazilian Emigrants in the World” (2013), says that more than the desire to enter the U.S., today there is a strong desire to leave Brazil.
“There was a feeling among many Brazilians that, with [President Jair] Bolsonaro, things would get much better. But the economy is not going well, and many have lost confidence,” she says, remembering that a Brazilian earns in one week doing cleaning in New York what he would earn in four weeks working in Brazil.
Source: Valor International