São Paulo – A hundred refugees are already registered with Projeto de Apoio para Recolocação de Refugiados (PARR – Refugee Placement Support Project), launched in early October to help refugees living in Brazil find work in their own fields. The program is promoted through a partnership between the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (Unhcr) and Emdoc, a Brazilian consulting firm specializing on immigration for foreigners who come to the country and Brazilians who move abroad.
“I proposed the project to help refugees in Brazil. We realized that they have a hard time repositioning them on the labour market. We will work with the companies, show them that refugees are a legal labour force, but were unsafe living in their own countries,” says the Emdoc client manager and one of the masterminds behind the PARR, Marcelo Kneip Pereira.
He claims that eventually the refugees manage to find jobs in Brazil. Many are college educated, but are unlikely to be hired in their own line of work. “In some cases, they only find jobs that require a low level of training,” he says.
There are 4,500 refugees from 77 different countries living in Brazil. Most come from Africa and Latin America, in particular Peru and Colombia. The country is also a destination for Palestinian refugees. Refugees living in Brazil who have already sought asylum from the Brazilian government may apply for a taxpayer registration number (CPF) and a labour card, and then seek a job. The companies, however, would still rather fill their positions with Brazilian workers.
“The refugees are prejudiced against, because many believe they are criminals who have fled to Brazil,” says Pereira. Emdoc intends to contact roughly 900 of the companies that it already works with. Registered companies may seek the professionals on the PARR website (view below).
The entire project is funded by Emdoc. The Unhcr will place the refugees listed with non-government organizations (NGOs) in touch with the project. One such organization is Cáritas Arquidiocesana de São Paulo. The institution gives shelter to refugees, offers Portuguese lessons and instructs refugees arriving in Brazil on how to obtain their papers. It also helps them to elaborate their resumes.
For the time being, the project is only effective in the city of São Paulo. There is a proposal for the PARR to cover the whole country. “Cáritas is very large in Rio de Janeiro. We are aware that there are many refugees in Manaus. We want to operate in all of the major cities,” says Pereira.
Further information
http://dev-abcmix.com/emdoc2/
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
