Immigrant workers in Brazil up 131% from 2010 to 20152010-2015
From October 2015 to June 2016, for the first time this decade, immigrants started being affected by employment loss.
From 2010 to 2015, the number of immigrant workers increased 131% in the formal labor market, soaring from 54,333 in 2010 to 125,535 in December 31, 2015, according to the Observatory of International Migration (OBMigra), a cooperation between the Ministry of Labor and the University of Brasília.
The figures were released on Wednesday (Dec. 7) in a document entitled 2016 Annual Report – The Participation of Immigrants in Brazil's Labor Market. The data reveal that, despite the rise, immigrant workers total less than 0.5% of the work force in the formal market.
From October 2015 to June 2016, however, for the first time this decade, immigrants started being affected by employment loss. In the first half of 2016, for instance, 19,734 immigrants were hired and 24,965 fired.
According to the ministry, the difference between hired and fired immigrants from 2010 to 2015 usually yielded a positive number—in contrast with the trend observed in the northern hemisphere, where the economic crisis affected immigrants first.
“Unemployment isn't homogeneous, but the outbreak of the crisis also had a significant impact on immigrants,” said University of Brasília Professor and OBMigra Coordinator Leonardo Cavalcanti. For immigrants to be reintegrated, he argued, public policies on labor and geographical mobility should be devised. “Immigrants are open to change fields. Construction was hiring a lot, and then started to sack workers. [They may] shift to other flows, like the end of the agribusiness production chain, where immigrants are working in the south of the country, with the slaughter of pigs and chickens.”
Immigrant workers across the country
The Southeast and the South were the regions taking in the highest number of immigrant workers. In 2010, the state of São Paulo employed 48.5%, followed by Rio de Janeiro (15.8%). These two states plus Minas Gerais accounted for 70% of these workers. Next comes the South, with 17% approximately.
In 2015, the state of São Paulo lost some of its relative importance by receiving 35.8% of the immigrant labor force. Rio de Janeiro (9.8%) hired less than Paraná (12.9%), Santa Catarina (12.8%) and Rio Grande do Sul (10%), the states that comprise the south.
The report also shows a predominantly young, male population of immigrants, who graduated from high school or the university.
Profile
The report also shows a predominantly young, male population of immigrants, who graduated from high school or the university. Among the occupational sectors with a significant expansion in the participation of immigrants in the period surveyed are the production of industrial goods and services and repair and maintenance services.
Early in the 2010's, the highest increase in the amount of immigrant workers was brought about by Haitians, who became the main nationality in the formal market in 2013 and retained this status. Haitians went from 815 in the 2011 labor market to 33,154 in 2015.
The study also found that, in 2013, the Portuguese—the majority up to that point—had been surpassed by Haitians, who, in 2015, already represented 26.4% of the immigrant labor force in Brazil.
Translated by Fabrício Ferreira
Fonte: Immigrant workers in Brazil up 131% 2010-2015
