São Paulo – The 2010 Census migration figures issued last Friday (27th) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) revealed that Lebanon was the Arab country that sent the most immigrants to Brazil in 2010. A total of 1,430 Lebanese citizens moved to Brazil, 79.9% of which were native. The other 20.1% were Brazilians who returned to their native country.
Syria ranked second among Arab countries that sent immigrants to Brazil: out of 239 people who came to live here, 4.2% were Brazilians returning from the Arab country and the remainder were Syrians who came to live in Brazil. Morocco was third (157 people), followed by Egypt (95), United Arab Emirates (86), Saudi Arabia (46), Libya (41), Qatar (22), Algeria (21), Tunisia, Bahrain and Yemen (20 immigrants each), Sudan (16) and Iraq (8).
According to the IBGE census, Brazil received a total of 268,500 immigrants, 86.7% more than the 143,600 immigrants who came to live in the country in 2000, when the previous census was conducted. Of those, 2,221 people came from Arab countries, a figure equivalent to 0.82%. more than half the immigrants who came to Brazil settled in the states of São Paulo, Paraná and Minas Gerais.
In that year, most immigrants to Brazil came from the United States: 51,933 people, of which 84.2% were Brazilians who returned to the country and 15.8%, were Americans who moved to Brazil. The second leading source of immigrants to Brazil in 2010 was Japan: 41,417 immigrants, of whom 89.1% were Brazilians. Paraguay ranked third.
To the IBGE socioeconomic analyst, Marden Campos, the return of Brazilians who lived in other countries may be a consequence of the financial crisis abroad. Brazil’s economic improvement is another factor.
“The growth of Brazil helps explain the increase in immigration [which rose by 86.7% compared with the preceding census]. In the case of the United States and Japan, there are also Brazilians who have only decided to return after spending a few years abroad. But in the case of countries such as Paraguay, Bolivia and the Arab countries, it has to do with the fact that Brazil offers better opportunities,” said Campos.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
