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103 6 Other Des­ ti­ na­ tions Eu­ rope, En­ gland, and the Re­ pub­ lic of Ire­ land The mod­ er­ nity Bra­ zil­ ians were bring­ ing to Por­ tu­ gal was not ­ viewed as equiv­ a­ lent to cul­ ti­ vated Eu­ ro­ pean taste. It was a hy­ brid, third world kind of mod­ er­ nity. . . . It was also vol­ a­ tile and un­ pre­ dict­ able, for Bra­ zil was seen as a young coun­ try lack­ ing ­ strong cul­ tural and moral tra­ di­ tions to counter­ act the cul­ tural ex­ cesses of mod­ ern­ iza­ tion. An­ gela Tor­ re­ san (2007, 114) Just how many Bra­ zil­ ians are there in var­ i­ ous Eu­ ro­ pean na­ tions, in En­ gland, and in the Re­ pub­ lic of Ire­ land? As in the ­ United ­ States num­ bers are il­ lu­ sive be­ cause many Bra­ zil­ ians are in their host coun­ tries il­ le­ gally. Still, es­ ti­ mates exist, such as the one pub­ lished by Itam­ ar­ aty, ­ Brazil’s Min­ is­ try of­ Foreign Af­ fairs, in 2011 (table 5). Table 5 Brazilians in Europe, England, and the Republic of Ireland Country Number Portugal 136,000 England 180,000 Spain 159,000 Germany 91,000 Italy 85,000 France 80,000 Switzerland 57,000 Republic of Ireland 18,000 Source: Ministério das Relações Exteriores 2011. Other Destinations: Europe, England, and the Republic of Ireland 104 Bra­ zil­ ians in Eu­ rope Al­ though the num­ ber of Bra­ zil­ ians in Eu­ rope is rel­ a­ tively mod­ est when meas­ ured ­ against the num­ ber in the ­ United ­ States, ev­ i­ dence sug­ gests that sev­ eral cat­ a­ lysts ­ re-oriented many Bra­ zil­ ian im­ mi­ grants and their fa­ cil­ i­ ta­ tors—pri­ mar­ ily ­ travel and re­ mit­ tance agen­ cies—away from the­ United ­ States and to­ ward Eu­ rope and En­ gland. Fore­ most among them was the ­ greater dif­ fi­ culty se­ cur­ ing tour­ ist visas for ­ travel to the ­ United­ States fol­ low­ ing the Sep­ tem­ ber 2001 at­ tacks in New York and Wash­ ing­ ton, DC, along with the in­ creased con­ trols at U.S. bor­ ders. The high cost, un­ cer­ tainty, and out­ right dan­ ger of il­ le­ gal entry via Mex­ ico cer­ tainly put a­ damper on the al­ lure of the ­ United ­ States. The ­ strength of the euro ­ vis-à-vis the U.S. dol­ lar also ­ played a role in that the value of re­ mit­ tances sent back to Bra­ zil was en­ hanced when sent in the Eu­ ro­ pean ­ Union’s cur­ rency.1 And, as noted in chap­ ter 4, the pos­ sibil­ ity that Bra­ zil­ ians could ac­ quire Por­ tu­ guese, Span­ ish, or Ital­ ian pass­ ports be­ cause of their an­ ces­ tral roots in those coun­ tries and their re­ sult­ ing abil­ ity to im­ mi­ grate le­ gally made these des­ ti­ na­ tions at­ trac­ tive to many ­ would-be im­ mi­ grants (Salek 2002). Des­ ti­ na­ tion: Por­ tu­ gal Per­ haps no­ where did this ­ re-direction away from the ­ United ­ States and to­ ward Eu­ rope have a ­ greater im­ pact than in Por­ tu­ gal. It is not sur­ pris­ ing that Por­ tu­ gal, ­ Brazil’s “mother coun­ try,” is home to what is ­ likely the larg­ est num­ ber of Bra­ zil­ ians on the Eu­ ro­ pean con­ ti­ nent. After all, Bra­ zil­ ians speak the lan­ guage, al­ beit with a dis­ tinct ac­ cent and some­ what dif­ fer­ ent vo­ cab­ u­ lary from those of the Por­ tu­ guese them­ selves. Since 2007, Bra­ zil­ ians have been the larg­ est im­ mi­ grant group in Por­ tu­ gal, ac­ count­ ing for 25 per­ cent of all im­ mi­ grants in that coun­ try (Dos San­ tos et al. 2010; Moura 2010). A good num­ ber of Bra­ zil­ ians ­ headed for Por­ tu­ gal after being pre­ vented from travel­ ing to the ­ United ­ States. Re­ call that res­ i­ dents of Minas Ge­ rais are rou­ tinely de­ nied U.S. tour­ ist visas, which ex­ plains why an es­ ti­ mated 30 per­ cent of Bra­ zil­ ians in Por­ tu­ gal are...

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