Brazil had 130 thousand births to immigrant children in 10 years

The flow of international migration to Brazil from 2013 to 2022 resulted in the birth of 129,800 children to immigrant mothers who arrived in the country. The balance was presented this Wednesday (Dec 6, 2023) during a seminar promoted by the MJSP (Ministry of Justice and Public Security), which marks the 10th anniversary of the creation of OBMigra (International Migration Observatory), linked to the department.

According to the report (complete – PDF – 47.8 MB)the evolution of births to immigrant mothers has shifted from nations in the Southern Cone region, such as Bolivia and Paraguay, to countries that have experienced a migration crisis in recent years, especially Venezuela and Haiti.

In 2013, more than 8,500 children were registered as being born to immigrant mothers, the majority of whom were Bolivian and Paraguayan, followed by Chinese women, who came in 3rd place. In 2016, Haitian mothers surpassed Chinese mothers, a situation that remained until 2018. The following year, Venezuelan mothers took first place, followed by Haitians and Bolivian mothers.

The report points to a significant change in the profile of immigrants who went to Brazil in the period analyzed, who moved from countries in the Global North to the Global South, at the same time as they intensified. In 2022, the PF (Federal Police) registered 1.2 million long-term and temporary residence records, ten times more than what was observed at the beginning of the period. Venezuelans, Haitians, Argentines and Colombians became the main nationalities to apply for residency, to the detriment of Portuguese, Spanish, Germans and Italians.

“In 2013, the Federal Police registered 105,094 requests for residence, 67,535 of which were short-term and 37,559 temporary. After 10 years, the volume of residence registrations increased to 1.2 million, more than 10 times that observed at the beginning of the period analyzed, with the participation of long-term migrants increasing from 64.2% to 80.8%, suggesting that in the migratory project of these people, Brazil figures as the place chosen for their home”says the report.

Weddings

One of the data in the balance sheet is the number of marriages involving immigrants. In total, there were 66,300 marriages, in which one of the spouses was an immigrant. The union between an immigrant man and a Brazilian woman accounted for 59% of the total cases, while between a Brazilian man and an immigrant woman it accounted for 28.1% of registered marriages. Marriages in which both spouses were immigrants totaled 12.9%.

Job market

The number of immigrants in the formal job market rose from around 90,000 in 2013 to 200,000 in 2022, according to the report. The main nationalities are Venezuelans, Haitians and Paraguayans.

The main areas of insertion are the agribusiness sector, in refrigerator production lines, followed by civil construction and the food sector.

Refuge

The OBMigra report also provides an overview of requests for recognition of refugee status presented to the Federal Police, which have evolved both in numbers and in the profile of the applicants.

In 2013, the number of requests was slightly less than 6,000 requests, highlighting, in order, the Bengali, Haitian and Senegalese nationalities. In the following 2 years, Syrians emerged with some relevance and, in 2016, the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela exploded the migration flow to Brazil.

In the same year, Cubans and Angolans also appeared on the list of main nationalities in asylum applications. In the historical series analyzed, there were 210,052 asylum requests from Venezuelans, 38,884 from Haitians, 17,855 from Cubans and 11,238 from Angolans.

In 2013, women contributed only 10.5% of requests. In 2022, in the total historical series, female participation reached 40% of requests, and among Venezuelans and Cubans the percentages were above average, 45.9% and 46.8%, respectively, according to the report.

With information from Brazil Agency.