Brasília welcomes another 46 Venezuelans under resettlement initiative

Veronica Gabriel Castañeda, 19, set off from Venezuela five months pregnant after deciding the rights violations and the economic collapse she was witnessing in her own country would not be tackled any time soon. In addition to interrupting her Biology studies at the university, the young woman parted from her mother in August 2017 to migrate to Brazil, accompanied by her husband, administrator Robert Antonio Rodrigues, 28, four days after her wedding.

All Venezuelan immigrants will be assisted by teams assigned by international organization Caritas. - Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil

The couple arrived in the Federal District on Thursday (Dec. 20) as part of another stage in the government’s resettlement program for Venezuelans. The most heartrending part, she told Agência Brasil, is bidding farewell from one’s family. The three immigrants come in the group of 46 Venezuelan nationals being relocated from the town of Boa Vista to Brazil’s capital. All Venezuelan immigrants will be assisted by teams assigned by international organization Caritas, in collaboration with the federal government and the US State Department under the Pana program, conducted in seven state capitals across Brazil.

Veronica’s decision was made all the more difficult as her mother opposed her departure. “As far as I was concerned, I’d bring my mother and my sister over with me. My mom, however, has a job. She’s a nurse and says she wouldn’t leave her country or her occupation. I think of working a lot so I can bring her. It’s been around a week I phoned her and told her to come to Brasília. All she said was: ‘You have to bring my granddaughter.’ I called my grandmother the other day, she said: ‘Look, take care of your daughter, I’m not going to meet her.’ It was hard, really hard. You start thinking you may never see your family again, given the circumstances,” she said, while lulling her daughter to sleep at the Social Reference Work Center (CRAS), in São Sebastião, some 25 km away from downtown Brasília.

Veronica says she and her husband have been in Brazil for one year and four months now. “It’s hard to come, leave your things behind, your family, to come to another country. We came to Brazil because it was closest; we couldn’t go to any country other than Brazil. It wasn’t easy; we did what we could. We rented a place, we had meals, everything was only possible after really hard work. Some people are not lucky enough to find a Brazilian to help them,” she said.

Employment

The couple plans to stay in Brazil and seek more dignity and autonomy through work. “I was studying to become a Biology teacher back at home, and my husband was studying too, he was pursuing a second career. He was an administrator at a travel agency, but he was studying management in human resources,” Veronica recounted.

Robert said everyone immigrant is in search of something better for themselves and their family. “We don’t come to steal anyone’s job; we’re here to build our lives, along with the other people,” he said.

In the view of Wagner Cesário, national adviser for migration and refuge with Caritas, one of the biggest challenges for immigrants and refugees in Brazil is, indeed, finding a place in the labor market.