History of Immigration in Brazil

The arrival of immigrants to Brazil, except for the presence of the Portuguese – the colonizers of the Country – may be outlined as of the opening of the ports to the “friend nations" (1808) and the independence of the Country (1822). Aside the voluntary population moves it is worth remembering that millions of negroes were compelled to cross the Atlantic ocean, along the 16th to 19ty centuries, with destination Brazil, constituting the slave labor. The Brazilian monarchs started to attract immigrants to the southern region of the Country, offering them lots of land so that they may establish as small farmers. The Germans were the first to come and, as of 1870, the Italians, two ethnic groups that became a majority in the states of Santa Catalina and Rio Grande do Sul. However, the huge immigration levy started in the mid 1880’s with features quite different form those pointed above.

The state of Sao Paulo became the region of more attraction and the basic objectives of the immigration policy were changed. Attracting families that would become small landowners was now out of consideration and the policy was to get labor for coffee farming, in full expansion in Sao Paulo. The option for massive immigration was the way of replacing the slave negro worker, due to the crisis in the slave system and the abolition of slavery (1888). However, this option was well fitted on the frame of a huge transoceanic move of populations that took place in all Europe, as from the half of the 19^th century that lasted until the start of First World War The immigration wave was levered, by one side, by the socio-economic changes occurring in some countries in Europe and, by the other side, by a greater ease of transports, arising out of the generalization of steam navigation and dropping of ticket prices. As of the first levies, immigration chain, or rather, the attraction of people established in the new lands, calling their relatives or friends, had a relevant role. In the Americas, by order, the United States, Argentina and Brazil were the main countries receiving immigrants.

In the Brazilian case, the data indicate that around 4.5 millions of people immigrated to the country between 1882 and 1934. From these, 2.3 millions entered the state of Sao Paulo as third-class passengers by the port of Santos, and thus, entries under other conditions are not included therein. It is worth reminding, though, that at certain times, the number of people going away was huge. In Sao Paulo, for example, during the coffee crisis, (1903-1904) liquid migration reached negative numbers. One of the distinctive signs of the immigration to Sao Paulo, up to 1927, was the fact that it was many times subsided, especially in the first days, unlike what happened in the United States, and, to a certain extent, in Argentina.

The subsidy should provide maritime tickets to the family group and transportation to the farms and it was a way to attract poor immigrants to a country whose climate and sanitary conditions were not attractive. As of the 30’s the massive chain immigration decreased. The nationalist policy of some European countries – a typical case was Italy after Mussolini’s rise – had the trend to place obstacles to immigration to Latin America.

In Brazil, the demand for labor, needed to the industrial development, was more and more supplied by internal migrations. People form the Northeastern part of the Country and the Minas Gerais state abandoned their regions in the search for the "el-Dorado of Sao Paulo". In the 30’s, only the Japanese, connected to small farms, kept on coming in huge numbers to Sao Paulo. In more recent years, immigration to Brazil was quite diversified, qualitatively. New ethnical groups joined the previous ones, likewise the immigration in the neighboring countries - Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia etc. – both for professional and political reasons.

Koreans became a part of scenario of the city of Sao Paulo, multiplying restaurants and sweatshops. After the first years of extreme difficulties, not quite different from those suffered in other countries; the immigrants were able to integrate into Brazilian society. Most of them ascended socially, thus changing the socioeconomic and cultural landscape of Brazil’s center-south.

In the South, they were bound to produce wheat, wine, and to industrial activities, in Sao Paulo, levering the industrial development and trade. In those regions, they transformed the cultural scenario as well, evaluating work ethics, introducing new food standards and modifications to the Portuguese languages, which was enriched with new words and a particular accent. The European, Middle East and Asiatic immigrants (Portuguese, Italians, Spanish, Germans, Jews, Syrians and Lebanese, Japanese) influenced the ethnical formation of the Brazilian population, above all in the Center-south and South regions of the Country. Taking into account the contributions of the Indians and Negroes, the outcome is an ethnically diversified population, whose values may vary from one segment to another, in the scope of a common nationality.