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Number of illegal Brazilians in the US quadruples because of local soap opera
By Andrew Hay
| quote: | Brasília (Reuters) - Brazilian immigrants are illegally going to the United States more than ever, in the hope of finding work and better lives, exactly like the characters of the soap opera "América".
The number of Brazilians without documents detained in American soil has quadrupled this year when compared to 2004, an increase much higher than that of illegal immigrants from other Latin American countries, according to American authorities.
When trying to identify the factors that could be propelling this exodus, authorities noticed the passion of the Brazilian people for "América", a soap opera that has been broadcast since March and that shows illegal immigrants risking their lives in order to get in the USA and finding jobs amidst the difficulties.
"Any publicity leads people to believe they're going to get there", said an American diplomat who didn't want to have his name published.
Along with half of all television watchers in the country, Tarcila Madureira Silva, 20 years old, turns the TV on every night in order to watch the Soap opera, broadcasted by TV Globo. She saw the heroine of the story, Sol, finding a job as a dancer in Miami and sending money to her family in Rio, among love scenes with her gringo boyfriend.
Silva had already seen her neighbours building houses with the money earned illegally in the United States.
"I decided to leave in order to improve the life of my family", she said, and in July she left her mother and two younger brothers in Gonzaga, a small city in Minas Gerais, in order to make a 8 thousand kilometer trip to the Mexican border with the United States.
As happens with one of four illegal immigrants, she was arrested by the authorities minutes after she crossed the border. Many people manage to be freed after paying bail and escape, but she was deported.
AUTHORITIES CAUTIOUS WITH THE SOAP OPERA
During the last months, Brazilians became the second greatest group of illegal immigrants detained in the USA, being outnumbered only by the Mexicans. In some cities in Brazil, up to a third of all inhabitants left the country in order to find better jobs. There are cases of 15 year old teens taking the trip.
What moves these Brazilians is the dream of finding the hope, money and glamour that their hometowns lack.
The Brazilian economy is rising, but unemployment still affects 10% of the population. Almost half of the population lives in poverty and struggle to find work where even minimum-wage jobs are limited, with wihich it's hard to survive.
When the American authorities tried to explain the high number of illegal Brazilian immigration this year, they noticed that the Brazilian currency was much stronger, which made the 9 thousand dollars requested by "Coyotes" on the Mexican border cheaper by comparison.
Other than that, the news that Mexico is going to be more strict in their immigration policy might have been another factor that led these Brazilians to take the trip, said a representative of the embassy in the USA.
When the number of Brazilians detained on the border between April and May increased to 7 thousand people, almost the total number of detainees in 2004, North American authorities started to look for other reasons. That's when they noticed the soap opera.
Since then, the employees of the American embassy in Brazil watch "América" regularly.
According to Leonardo Monteiro, part of a parliamentary commission on immigration, the soap opera tripled the number of Brazilians going to the American border.
Groups supporting immigrants confirm that "América" is having an enormous influence.
"The soap opera shows people having great difficulties, but the fact that one or a couple of them succeeded gives the impression that people can do it", commented Luis Bassegio, who runs the Migrant's Pastoral Service of the Brazilian Catholic Church.
GLORIA PEREZ
Critics like Monteiro say "América" glorifies illegal immigration by showing Brazilians living in a happy world of fantasy, instead of showing how hard and difficult illegal life in the US is.
The producers claim that "América" shows the real life, although it does so in a beautiful and dramatised way.
For Gloria Perez, the author of "América", "the soap opera shows Brazilians that leave for the dream of a better life and end up becoming segregated immigrants excluded in a foreign land".
"América" shows Brazilians suffering discrimination, exploitation and rracial segregation -- everything that they deal with in major Brazilian cities.
The difference is that in the soap opera, as happens in real life, they find jobs as cosnstruction workers or cleaning ladies that pay in two days what they'd earn in a month in Brazil.
The 1.3 million Brazilians residing in the United States, half of them being illegal, send back to Brazil about 2 billion dollars every year. Those who move back to their homeland inspire others into following their example.
The stories of Brazilians found drowned in Rio Grande or dead in the desert don't even make it to the news.
Wearing a thick gold chaing and a shirt that reads "Massachusetts Home Sweet Home", Fabiano da Silva is sitting in front of the restaurant he opened in Guanhães, in Minas Gerais, with the money he brought home from the USA.
He spent 4 years in the USA working illegaly as a gardner and in restaurants. "I'd do it all again", he tells his friends, when he tells his stories about America.
(Maria Pia Palermo and Guido Nejamkis contributed with this article in Brazil and Anahi Rama in Mexico) |
I'm going to post my thoughts later.
edit: Thanks you very much, Renegade 
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Last edited by Lira on Aug-30-2005 at 18:52
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