Abstract
Migration is among Brazil’s most persistent phenomena that has had tremendous influence on the social dynamics of the country. Even more important is the fact that migration greatly expresses existing regional inequalities. Based on five demographic censuses (1970 to 2010), this chapter shows that this persistent divide impacts migration flows, especially those of longer distances. Such territorial inequalities were somehow attenuated in the 2000s, as a result not only of the recovery of the purchasing power of wages but also of advances in social policies. As a result, we witnessed the intensification of return migration, especially toward the poorer Brazilian Northeast. On the other hand, the economic crisis of the 1990s also affected the national migration dynamics. Hence, longer distance movements (interstate) are influenced by regional differences, which are still far from being eradicated. This chapter attempts to show that a broader temporal view of the national migration process leads us to reflect on the nature of the actual ruptures and continuities of Brazilian social context, particularly the transition to an urban society. Describing and discussing these trends becomes an even more provocative experience when we are able to rely on several comparable demographic censuses, which allow us to examine the migratory phenomenon over the course of five decades.
Somos muitos Severinos iguais em tudo e na sina:
a de abrandar estas pedras suando-se muito em cima,
a de tentar despertar terra sempre mais extinta,
a de querer arrancar algum roçado da cinza.
Mas, para que me conheçam melhor Vossas Senhorias
e melhor possam seguir a história de minha vida,
passo a ser o Severino que em vossa presença emigra.
(Morte e Vida Severina, de João Cabral de Melo Neto)
We are many Severinos and our destiny’s the same:
to soften up these stones by sweating over them,
to try and bring to life a dead and deader land,
to try and wrest a farm out of burnt-over land.
But, so that Your Excellencies can recognize me better
and be able to follow better the story of my life,
I’ll be the Severino you’ll now see emigrate.
(The Death and Life of a Severino, by João Cabral de Melo Neto, translated by Elizabeth Bishop, Poetry Magazine, Chicago, October 1963)
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Notes
- 1.
In the 1970 census, the period of residence for individuals living in a given federative unit for more than 5 years was increased in a closed category called “6–10 years,” which as can be easily seen, also included people with a period of up to 10 years of residence in federative units and, therefore, more migrants than those of the inter-census period (1960/1970).
- 2.
By tabulating migrants by period of residence and the approximate breakdown of the group “6–10 years,” we found that migration during the inter-census period (i.e., migrants with period of residence between 0 and 9 years) corresponds, on average, to 95% of the FU total derived from the census, which caused us to discard this adjustment.
- 3.
With the exception of the 2000 census, this information is obtained by referring to the former municipality of residence for everyone living in the surveyed municipality for less than 10 years. Thus, the FU stated in the census as being the former residence would be the one that corresponds to the declared municipality of the former residence. Therefore, although living less than 10 years in a FU (and thus a migrant in the classification used), people who engaged in intrastate migration would be classified as nonmigrants, since their previous FU would be the same as the one surveyed. For this reason, it became necessary to distribute these people (present in the migration matrix diagonal) among the known sources. Therefore, migratory volumes and flows used in this chapter will indicate different totals from those presented by the IBGE.
- 4.
Net migration (the difference between immigration and emigration), obtained from the information about the “place of last residence,” does not formally correspond to the real indicator value for the 10-year period, given that it is not possible to pinpoint the precise time period of moving from one FU to another. Nevertheless, they are reasonable approximations and usually deviate little from expected values.
- 5.
In demographic jargon, the terms used are “stream” or “dominant stream” and “counter-stream,” where “stream” presents the higher volume.
- 6.
Calculated as the quotient between net migration (immigration minus emigration) and gross migration (immigration plus emigration).
- 7.
It is worth remembering that migration flows have a “direction” (connecting two specific areas) as well as a “course” (to/from). A MEI close to zero indicates no predominance of a specific course.
- 8.
The 1988 Constitution gave states the authority to create metropolitan areas, which led to a large increase in official metropolitan regions in areas that did not actually undergo the process of metropolitization.
- 9.
Readers are reminded that this chapter opted to prioritize migration between states, thus leaving aside an important dimension of internal migration within states and between Brazil’s municipalities and subregions.
- 10.
RIDE is an abbreviation for “Integrated Development Region of the Federal District,” a particular format of official metropolitan region.
- 11.
See footnote 7.
- 12.
Coleção Folha Grandes Escritores Brasileiros, vol. 2, 2008.
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da Cunha, J.M.P. (2019). Internal Migration in Brazil over the Past 50 Years: (Dis)Continuities and Ruptures. In: Arretche, M. (eds) Paths of Inequality in Brazil. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78184-6_10
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