MIGRATION:
Brazilians Start Heading
to Spain Instead of
Portugal
By Mario de Queiroz
LISBON (IPS) -
Portugal’s economic
crisis and extremely
strict border policing,
and the availability of
cheaper flights from
South America to Madrid,
are the main reasons for
the increasing number of
Brazilians choosing to
emigrate to Spain
instead of the country
with which they share
cultural and language
ties.
So IPS was told by
Eduardo Tavares de Lima,
a member of the
executive body of Casa
do Brasil in Lisbon,
which the 63-year-old
Brazilian writer and
journalist adopted as
his home city in 1975,
and where he is a
distinguished leader of
the vast community of
Brazilians resident in
Portugal.
But the rise in the
number of immigrants
from Brazil arriving in
Spain has already
provoked a diplomatic
row between the two
countries, after
similarly strict
migration authorities in
Madrid’s Barajas airport
deported a number of
Brazilians who were
seeking entry.
In retaliation, Brasilia
decided to bar entry to
Spanish tourists without
hotel reservations.
Between Mar. 6 and 12,
24 Spanish tourists were
sent home by migration
officials at Fortaleza,
Rio de Janeiro and
Salvador de Bahia
airports.
The Madrid newspaper El
País said on Mar. 24
that the Brazilian
Foreign Ministry openly
admits that these
measures are a form of
reciprocity toward
Spain, which refused
entry to close to 1,000
Brazilians in the first
quarter of this year.
The most notorious
examples of excessive
zeal on the part of
Spanish authorities took
place in early March,
when Brazilian academics
were prevented from
travelling onward
through Spain to a
congress in Lisbon, and
one student, Yanaina
Agostinho, was detained.
Although the young woman
fulfilled the
requirements of having
750 dollars, a return
air ticket and hotel
reservations, she was
deported after spending
a week locked up in the
Madrid airport.
Spanish Interior
Minister Alfredo Pérez
Rubalcaba said his
country would not allow
illegal entry of
immigrants, but he
acknowledged that
problems may have arisen
from actions by
individual police
officers.
His statement helped to
turn the heat down a
fraction in the
"deportation war"
between the two
countries.
According to the
Portuguese press, the
Brazilian Foreign
Ministry protested about
the insensitivity of
Spanish police officers
in cases like that of
university students
studying at Portuguese
universities, who were
refused entry in transit
to Lisbon even though
the Brazilian consul
could vouch for their
status.
Traditionally, Brazilian
migrants, tourists or
students travelling to
the European Union would
head for Lisbon, but
this has been gradually
changing over the past
two years.
According to a Brazilian
Foreign Ministry
document quoted by the
Portuguese newspaper
Público, the number of
Brazilians denied entry
to Portugal has been
falling at the same rate
as it is rising in
Spain.
The report says that,
according to Spain,
Brazilians are now
arriving more frequently
in Madrid because they
have a better chance of
getting past the
authorities by claiming
they do not understand
the questions during
in-depth interrogations,
something they cannot do
in Portugal where
officials speak the same
language.
The non-governmental
organisation SOS Racismo
says that the number of
Brazilians in Spain has
increased from 30,000 in
2005 to 80,000 in 2007.
However, it is still
much lower than in
Portugal, where the Casa
do Brasil estimates that
120,000 Brazilians are
living.
"When you consider that
Spain’s population and
territory are five times
larger than Portugal’s,
the proportional
difference in the number
of Brazilian immigrants
in each country is even
wider. Here in Portugal,
Brazilians are prominent
in trade, tourism and
restaurants, so they are
quite visible in
society," Tavares de
Lima told IPS.
"Migration of Brazilians
to foreign countries is
a recent phenomenon.
Before, exactly the
opposite happened:
Brazil was a recipient
of immigrants. But times
changed with the series
of economic crises from
the 1970s on, when the
‘Brazilian miracle’ went
up in smoke," he said.
After that, the exodus
started "with large
numbers of people
heading to Paraguay,
where their prospects
were better than in
Brazil. Then people of
Japanese descent went to
their ancestors’
homeland, dazzled by
Japan’s tremendous
economic growth," he
said.
Tavares de Lima said the
final straw was "the
failure of the economic
plan devised by
President José Sarney
(1985-1990), in 1986.
This coincided with the
entry of Portugal and
Spain into what was then
the European Economic
Community, now the EU,
which became the dream
destination of everyone
who was seeking new
opportunities that were
unavailable in Brazil."
Two decades ago, "the
European economy was
undergoing rapid
expansion and everyone
was welcome. Today,
Europe is juggling a hot
potato and doesn’t know
what to do with it," he
said.
Eduardo Gradinole, head
of the Department for
Brazilian Communities
Abroad (DCBE), told
Público that many
Brazilians detained in
Madrid reported bad
treatment, unjustified
detention and lack of
respect for their human
rights.
According to a DCBE
document, the list of
"inflexible" countries
in terms of enforcing EU
entry rules is headed by
the trio of Spain,
Ireland and Portugal.
Brazilian President Luiz
Inácio Lula da Silva
broached the subject
with his Portuguese
counterpart Aníbal
Cavaco Silva during an
official visit to Brazil
by the latter last
month.
Lula mentioned the 1.37
million Portuguese who
live in Brazil, and
expressed the hope that
"Brazilians will be made
as welcome in Portugal
as the Portuguese have
always been in Brazil." |
