IMMIGRATION AND BRAZILIAN IMMIGRATORY POLICY IN THE POST-SECOND WORLD WAR

Abstract

This article´s objective is to discuss post-World War II Brazilian immigration policy as presented by the official publication: Immigration and Colonization Review. As well, it analyses the migratory experience of displaced person, of different nationalities who entered experience of displaced persons, of different nationalities who entered Brazil by means of the agreement between Brazil and the "Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees" (IGCR), from the refugee camps of Germany and Austria between 1947 and 1950. From the 30´s sonwards, the immigration policy becomes rather restrictive, in response not only to the dictatorial period known as "Estado Novo" [The New State] when a nationalizing ideology, one of prejudice against foreigners, who are taken for enemies to local workers, is in force, but also as a reaction to the very growth of internal migratory flows, which become significant from the 20´s on. Such restrictive policy lasted until the end of the "Estado Novo', in 1945. The change that characterized the post-war period was thus quite significant as it reintroduced the discussion on the advantages of immigration, now within the context of the "modern Brazil", with is political opening and redemocratization, characterized by a wave of modernizing euphoria, of accelaration of the industrialization and urbanization process. The discussion of Brazilian participation in international agreement for placement and reception of displaced persons started in the years prior to the war, and two currents were formed: one, represented by the defenders of the policy for receiving the displaced, who argued on the benefits this type of immigrant could bring, as they were technicians, professionals, skilled laborers etc. And another, represented by politicians and intellectuals who positioned themselves against this type of immigrant, resuming a previous discourse, which highlighted the inassimilable character of certain ethnic groups and the advantages of Latin immigrants, such as the Portuguese, Spanish and Italians.