Brazil
Country Information
With a territory of over 8,500,000 square kilometres and about 198 million inhabitants, Brazil is by far the largest and most populous country of South America. The official language is Portuguese. With one of the world's largest growing economies, Brazil is South America's leading economic power and regional leader. However, highly unequal internal distribution remains a big problem for the country.
Brazilians make up one of the biggest groups of people who return voluntarily from Belgium. Only part of this large number of returnees needs reintegration assistance after their return. Most of the time they come from - and return to - either the state of Goias or Minas Gerais.
Partner
Instituto Migrações e Direitos Humanos - IMDH was founded in 1999 and is part of the Scalabrinian Sisters Congregation. It is a philanthropic non-profit human rights organization that deals with migrants and refugees, including jailed migrants and refugees, internal migrants, immigrants, asylum seekers, emigrants and Brazilian returnees. The organization has a number of projects such as "assistance and documentation of internal migrants", "rights defence, documentation and assistance to migrants", "linking and qualification of the Solidarity Network for migrants and refugees", "strengthening citizenship for migrant families and their children". For more information about IMDH and their activities please visit their website at www.migrante.org.br (in Portuguese)
IMDH has been assisting Brazilian voluntary returnees since 2007. The project leader and our local contact is Sister Rosita Milesi who has a lot of experience and expertise in the field of migration. She acts as an intermediary between Caritas International Belgium and social services in various parts of the country.
Since 2007 IMDH assisted more than 100 people with their reintegration in a number of different cities and states (Goias, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul, Paraná, São Paulo, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte, Pará etc)
Personal Story
After four years in Belgium Ana decided to return to Brazil with her husband and daughter. Because of the lack of work and housing, their situation in Belgium had become unsupportable. Upon their arrival in Brazil, the young couple was able to stay with Ana's mother. After consultation with IMDH, Ana and her husband used their reintegration budget to enrol themselves in a vocational training programme. Wanting to make use of the knowledge of French she gained while living in Brussels, Ana started to follow a course which would enable her to work as a French teacher. Once she completed the course, she used what was rest of the budget to buy some didactical material which she currently uses to teach young Brazilians the French language.
Contact
For any question concerning reintegration in Brazil, please contact :
Sandra Fernandez
+32 2 229 36 02
s.fernandez@caritasint.be