Urbanities,
Vol. 3
·
No 2
·
November 2013
© 2013
Urbanities
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Viewed in conceptual terms, Brazil’s Foreigner Statute created an ambiguity by
indistinctly classifying all those who enter the country as foreigners; even those who come to live
and work. We have in this case a legal category that supersedes the social category of immigrant,
highlighting differences between Brazilians and foreigners, despite the fact that their legal civil
equality was guaranteed in article 5 of the Brazilian Constitution of 1988.
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This distinction is not
only conceptual, but has direct implications for the exercise of citizenship rights by those who
were allowed to remain in Brazil. Among the rights that continue to be limited are those relating
to political citizenship; immigrants cannot vote or run for office unless they are naturalized. The
recognition of these rights, at least on a local level, would completely change the situation for
Brazil’s immigrants for they could voice and back demands concerning their social, cultural and
political rights.
With the arrival of Haitians in the country some other questions arose. From the
perspective of the Foreigners Statute they are entering the country illegally, given that upon
crossing the border they did not present the required entrance visa. Their strategy was to request
‘refugee’ status, which offers various interpretations. Even if they do not fit into this category
from the perspective of the Geneva Convention of 1951, because they have not suffered political,
religious or racial persecution, based on Brazil’s Refugee Statute, Law 9.474/97, they can be
granted this right. This Law extends the possibilities for refugee status in the country by adding
situations of ‘grave and generalized human rights violations’.
From this viewpoint, the conditions in Haiti after the earthquake denied them several
human rights, including food security, rights to housing, labour, healthcare, education and others.
Another possibility could be recognition of migrants under such a situation as ‘environmental
refugees’, a category foreseen by the United Nations Environmental Program of 1985.
Federal agents at Brazilian borders have no power to decide on the merits of these issues
when refugee status is requested. Therefore, after the immigrants register at the border, requests
are sent to the National Refugee Committee (CONARE) of the Ministry of Justice for analysis.
While awaiting a response, the Haitians receive a protocol that allows them to get a taxpayer’s ID
number (CPF) and registration at the Ministry of Labour, documents that are essential to look for
work in the country.
CONARE, however, stated that the 1951 Convention did not offer it the legal basis to
grant these requests, and sent them to the National Immigration Council (CNIg), which, under
Resolution no. 08/06, can grant foreigners permanent visas in Brazil for humanitarian reasons.
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It is worth recalling that the term immigrant was substituted for foreigner in the Constitution of 1937,
due to the negative connotation that it had at the time, because immigrant was defined as anyone who
arrived in national ports in 2nd or 3rd class, at the expenses of the federal government, the states or third
parties (Seyferth 2001:145). In the case of the Haitians, this concept seems not to have changed, given that
they are required to confront countless difficulties during the long journey, much of it taken by boats on
the rivers of the Amazonian area, a fact that raises the ominous image of the boat people and slave ships of
times past.
