Looking for Deportees in Goias, Brazil

In Jamaica, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic, I focused my research exclusively on the capital cities. In Brazil, however, it seems like that might not be the best option. The capital of Brazil – Brasilia – is not a major destination for deportees.

For this reason, I chose to do research in Goias - the Brazilian state with the highest number of deportees. However, I don’t yet know from which part of Goias deportees come. It seems as if they do not necessarily come from Goiania, the state capital. To find out from where in Goias deportees hail, I plan to speak with a few government officials who might have access to that information.

There are three government officials I need to locate and speak with. The first is a state-level official in Goias who is responsible for Goianos abroad. I am meeting with him this afternoon. The next is the ICE attaché for the US embassy in Brazil. The final person is either in Foreign Relations or in Immigration – in the Brazilian federal government. These people should be able to provide me with an idea of where deportees come from.

There has been relatively little research on migration from Goias to the US. However, I have been able to locate a couple of academic studies and have made contact with the authors of those. Speaking with academics is also useful for setting up my site selection.

One big question I have had is why there is so much emigration from Goias. When people think of emigration from Brazil, most think of Minas Gerais. Minas Gerais is the state that sends the most emigrants abroad. The connections between Minas Gerais and the US go back very far, and stem from the mining of mica in Minas Gerais by Americans in the early twentieth century. With Goias, however, there has been much less research and therefore we don’t have a well-developed understanding of emigration from Goias.

I recently read an article by Alan Marcus, a geographer at Towson State University. He argues that there was also mica mining in Goias, and that that led to emigration from Goias. Marcus also mentions Protestantism. Apparently, Goias is the state in Brazil with the highest amount of Protestantism. My colleague Izabel suggested that the high prevalence of the “Protestant Ethic” in Goias may be part of the explanation for emigration from Goias.

Another study, by Brazilian anthropologist, Gustavo Lins Ribeiro, points to the initial migration of a few Goianos to San Francisco as the root of Goianan emigration to the US. He found that a few people from Goiania went to the US and found work in pizzerias. Those initial migrants eventually set up their own pizzerias in San Francisco and used their networks in Brazil to bring Brazilian workers to San Francisco. From those few initial pioneers, San Francisco now has a relatively high number of Goianan immigrants.

Thus, pizza, mica, and Protestantism seem to be behind the emigration of Goianos to the US. The question remains, however, from which part of Goias these migrants come, and to which part of Goias most deportees go.

Brazil is among the top five countries that receive deportees from the US. However, I am not yet sure whether or not those deportees are primarily people found at the Mexican border, or if they are people who have lived for years in the US. It appears there have been a couple of governmental studies of deportees, and I plan to gain access to those to see if they can shed light on the characteristics of deportees.

Once I have a better idea of the demographic profile of deportees in Goias, it will be easier to select a site and to select potential participants for my study.