São Paulo – A survey conducted by the Ministry of Foreign Relations shows that currently, 20,622 Brazilians are living in Arab countries. The figures, which are not yet final and will be revised up until September, were surveyed among Brazilian consulates and embassies in 2010. According to the survey, there are a total of 3.1 million Brazilians living out of the country, nearly half – 1.38 million – in the United States.
The Arab world concentrates 0.66% of all Brazilians living abroad. The majority – 19,975 people – are in the Middle East. The Arab country with the most Brazilians is Lebanon, where there are 7,300 people from here, followed by Palestine, with 4,000, Syria, with 3,090, the United Arab Emirates, with 2,300 Brazilian expatriates, Jordan with 1,300, Qatar, with 670 people, and Kuwait, with 650 Brazilian. Also, in the region, there are 500 Brazilians in Saudi Arabia, 150 in Oman and 15 in Iraq.
In the Arab countries in Africa there is a smaller number of Brazilians, according to the survey, at a total of 647 people. The majority are in Egypt: 350. The second African Arab country with the most Brazilians is Morocco, at 151, followed by Algeria, at 71, Tunisia, at 50 people, Sudan, with 24, and Libya, with one Brazilian. There are no records of Brazilians in the Arab countries of Bahrain, Djibouti, Yemen, the Comoro Island, Mauritania and Somalia. There are a total of 22 Arab countries.
According to the professor of the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), Oswaldo Truzzi, who specializes in immigration-related themes, the strong Brazilian presence in Lebanon reflects the fact that Brazil houses the largest Lebanese colony outside of the Arab country, not to mention that it is now easy to travel between the two countries, living here and then there. He explains that many Lebanese people have moved to Brazil and then returned, taking their children. The same, he explains, happened with Palestine, the second Arab country in terms of number of Brazilians.
Truzzi made a recent work on Muslims in Brazil and ascertained, for instance, that they like Brazil in every aspects, except for raising their children in religion. “They judge the country to be too permissive,” he explains. Thus being, some have settled in Brazil to open their store, make money, and then returned as their children reached the pre-adolescent and adolescent stages. “That is the age in which they may stray from the path, grow apart from religion, and it is also the age in which they decide on marriage,” says the researcher. There was a migratory inflow of Muslims from Lebanon to Brazil during the Civil War.
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The figures of the survey are used by the Brazilian government to set public policies and ways to serve the citizens living overseas. The survey shows that the region that houses the most Brazilians is North America, at 1.43 million. Europe ranks second, with 911,800, South America ranks third, with 406,900, Asia is fourth, with 282,100, Oceania is fifth, with 53,000, Africa ranks sixth, with 28,800, and Central America is seventh, with 6,800 Brazilians.
Truzzi claims that although the figures refer to 2010, they do not reflect the migration of Brazilians to other countries last year, but rather portray a trend that accumulated over the years. That is why the United States and Japan rank first and second. “Starting in the 1980s, Brazil ceased to be the country of immigration and became the country of emigration,” says professor. It was an economically troubled time and and Brazilians left seeking better opportunities.
Within this context, the United States, in popular imagery, was the place where people could get rich through work. In Japan, which was growing, there was a government policy of attracting qualified labour force to the country and encourage the coming of grandchildren of Japanese. The Foreign Ministry’s survey does not include comparative figures, but according to Truzzi, the flow will tend to decline as a result of the improving economic situation in Brazil and the trouble faced by the United States and Europe.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
