Brazil is increasingly emerging as a key destination for the world’s asylum seekers. Between 2015 and 2024, the country received over 454,000 asylum applications from people representing 175 different nationalities. Among these, more than 82% originated from Venezuelan, Cuban, Haitian, and Angolan nationals, reflecting the country’s regional and linguistic connections as well as ongoing crises in Latin America, the Caribbean, and parts of Africa. In 2024 alone, Brazil recorded more than 68,000 new asylum applications, marking a 16.3% increase compared to the previous year. These numbers highlight both Brazil’s growing significance as a destination for displaced populations and the urgency of addressing the systemic challenges refugees face once they arrive.

While legal recognition and protection frameworks in Brazil have evolved, the lived reality for refugees remains precarious. Many encounter informal work, low wages, bureaucratic obstacles, and racialized exclusion, reflecting a profound disconnect between legal rights on paper and the material conditions on the ground. Examining this disconnect requires understanding Brazil’s historical refugee policies, labor market structures, and broader patterns of racial and social inequality.

Brazil’s refugee policy is deeply intertwined with its broader racialized political and economic projects. For much of the 20th century, Brazil adopted a highly selective approach to forced migration, privileging white European refugees while actively discouraging Black African and Asian migrants. This approach was neither neutral nor humanitarian; rather, it reflected a strategic effort to “whiten” the Brazilian population and advance a vision of modernization rooted in racial hierarchies.

In the aftermath of World War II, Brazil welcomed European refugees deemed culturally assimilable and economically beneficial. Many of these refugees were integrated into rural colonization projects or absorbed into low-skilled urban sectors, receiving little state support beyond their initial placement. By the early 1950s, Brazil had accepted approximately 40,000 European refugees. This Eurocentric policy intensified during the Cold War, as Brazil welcomed refugees fleeing communist regimes in Eastern Europe. These migrants contributed to the urban and industrial economy, yet their integration was shaped more by economic expediency than by concern for human rights.

The military dictatorship period (1964–1985) further complicated Brazil’s approach to forced migration. While some European and Latin American refugees were admitted, political dissidents and refugees from neighboring countries such as Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay were often viewed with suspicion. The state’s treatment of forced migrants was marked by repression and exclusion, and there was no structured public policy for refugee integration or labor market access. Those who did find work often did so informally, and their skills and professional backgrounds were largely........

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