Brazilians in the US: A Look at Migrants and

Transnationalism

Alvaro Lima, Eugenia Garcia-Zanello, and Manuel Orozco

Introduction The transnational activities of migrants have a notable

development impact on the host and home countries We look at the transnational activities of Brazilians in

Massachusetts. To examine them in the broader context, we compare the findings to data from surveys of Latin American migrants in the US by Orozco (2005, 2008)

Summary of Findings: While there are similarities between Brazilians and other migrants, there are some differences - Brazilians have lower levels of citizenship, The amount of money they remit home is much higher, While they show lower levels of overall transnational

engagement, they show greater engagement in terms of communicating with their homeland (via phone, email, etc)

Methodology Transnationalism: the way and degree to which migrants

participate in and maintain relations with fellow countrymen in the host country and country of origin (Orozco 2005)

Transnationalism analyzed via the “5 Ts” – remittances, tourism, travel, telecommunication, and nostalgic trade

Study conducted in 2008 of Brazilians in Massachusetts—the state with the largest concentration on Brazilians in the US

Random sample of 250 subjects, intercepted at remittances agencies, was drawn to assure confidence intervals of 6.17% at a confidence level of 95%

Survey administered by staff trained and supervised by Silvestre HMR&S, included questions from surveys by Orozco in 2003 and 2006 of Latin American migrants in the US

Remittance Flows to Brazil According to our estimates, the number of Brazilians living in

the U.S. today may be between 600,000 and 700,000 Brazilians living abroad sent $7.2 billion back home in 2008

according to estimates by the Inter-American Development Bank, making Brazil the second largest recipient of remittances in Latin America after Mexico

According to our estimates, remittances from the U.S. to Brazil were about $3.5 billion in 2007

Remittances play an important role in the economies of Brazilian migrant-sending states, where 1.3 million Brazilians receive remittances from relatives living abroad (Levy 2006)

Demographics of Brazilian Remitters Brazilian remitters display

characteristics that differentiate them from other migrant groups

Compared to other Latin American migrants (data from surveys by Orozco, 2005), Brazilians are older, more educated and have the highest proportion of people with incomes over US$35,000, and have the lowest proportion of US citizenship

Average Age 35.6 years

Gender 66% male, 35% female

Household Size

3 to 4 people

Income 38% earn over $35,000/year

Education Level

33% high school, 25% some college

Home Ownership

10.8%

Business Owners

12.4%

U.S. Citizenship

3.2% are citizens

Average Years in the U.S.

6 years

Demographics of Brazilian Remitters 50% of Brazilians send money

home once a month, 33% twice a month, and 9.2% once every 3 months - similar to other groups of remitters

Like other Latin American cases, mothers and fathers are the main beneficiaries of remittances (36.4%)

However, monthly remittances of Brazilians ($875) are much higher than the average for other Latin American and Caribbean remitters

How is the remittance used or spent by the recipient?

Food 24.8%

Clothing 17.4%

Education 16.1%

Medical 11.7%

Housing 17.1%

Business 7.4%

Savings 5.4%

The 5 Ts: Brazilians and Transnationalism

To examine the levels of engagement among Brazilians, we developed an index of engagement. The higher the score, the greater the level of engagement

Compared to other migrants of Latin American origin living in the U.S., Brazilians display slightly lower levels of overall engagement – Why??

Index Score Brazilians LAC migrants

0 4.8% 3.5%

1 54.4% 15.8%

2 32.8% 28.3%

3 7.6% 38.8%

4 0.4% 13.6%

The 5 Ts: Travel

83.7% of Brazilians never traveled home since migrating to the US, while only 42.3% of other Latin Americans have never traveled home

This could be because Brazilians in the US have lower levels of citizenship…

Frequency of Travel Home Brazilians (%) LAC (%)

Three or more times a year 0.5 2.0

Twice a year 3.3 3.3

Once a year 7.9 18.3

Once every 2 years 1.9 9.3

Once every 3 years 0.9 5.3

Less than once every 3 years 1.9 19.5

Never travelled 83.7 42.3

The 5 Ts: Telecommunication Brazilian migrants call their family more often than other Latin

Americans in the US (the average length of each call is over 30 minutes)

72% send/receive emails to/from people in Brazil, and 87.6% watch television or listen to radio programs that originate from their home country

Frequency of Calling Brazilians (%) LAC (%)

Two or more times a week 52.6 16.3

Once a week 35.3 37.9

Once every 2 weeks 6.4 23.5

Once a month 4.0 11.5

Less than once a month 1.6 10.8

The 5 Ts: Nostalgic Trade

Compared to other Latin Americans in the US Brazilian display similar levels of engagement when it comes to buying nostalgic products

The most popular products they buy are foods and spices (45.5% of them regularly buy these goods), DVDs and CDs (20.6%), and clothing (17.8%)

Nationality

Bolivia 86%

Brazil 98%

Colombia 92%

Dominican Republic 97%

El Salvador 88%

Ethiopia 78%

Ghana 91%

India 85%

Mexico 99%

Nigeria 93%

Paraguay 92%

Philippines 71%

Honduras 90%

The 5 Ts: HTA Membership

Levels of engagement by Brazilians are comparable to those of other Latin American migrants in the US, but slightly lower

Nationality

Bolivia 6%

Brazil 12.4%

Colombia 15%

Dominican Republic 20%

El Salvador 4%

Ethiopia 39%

Ghana 23%

India 13%

Mexico 15.5%

Nigeria 22%

Paraguay 38%

Philippines 2%

Honduras 8.0%

Conclusions

There are both similarities and differences between Brazilians and other Latin Americans migrants in the US as far as sending remittances and other transnational activities Remittances: Brazilians remit more, a smaller percentage

of remittance senders has US citizenship Transnational Activities: Lower levels of engagement

overall, but greater participation in telecommunications These findings give us important insight on the unique

characteristics of Brazilian migrants in the US

Additional Considerations…

Why do Brazilians send more in remittances than other LA migrants? Cost of living in Brazil is higher than in other LA countries Brazilians have lower levels of citizenship and this a higher

percent of them plan to return home, so while in USA remit as much as they can

Brazilian migrant profile more middle class families (higher income, more educated than other LA migrants in the US)

References Le Franc, Elise and Andrew Downes. 2001. “Measuring Human

Development in Countries with Invisible Economies: Challenges Posed by the Informal and Remittance Sectors in Jamaica.” Social and Economic Studies 50(1): 169‐98.

Levy, Patrick. 2006. “Brazil: Financial Remittances Services in Brazil,” U.S. Department of Commerce.

Orozco, Manuel. 2005. “Migration, Money and Markets: The New Realities of Central America in Beyond Small Change – Making Immigrant Remittances Count.” Edited by Donald F. Terry and Steven R. Wilson. Inter‐American Development Bank.

Orozco, Manuel. 2005. “Transnational Engagement, Remittances and Their Relationship to Development in Latin America and the Caribbean,” Institute for the Study of International Migration, Georgetown University.

Orozco, Manuel. 2008. “Tasting Identity: Trends in Migrant Demand for Home-Country Goods.” Produced for review by the United States Agency for International Development, Washington, DC.