For the prosecutor, understanding the characteristics of refugee flows is important in the fight against slave labor
Motivated by the need to understand the characteristics of recent flows of foreigners to Brazil and the desire to contribute so that the Brazilian population does not see immigrants as an enemy, but rather as equals, the Public Ministry of Labor (MPT) decided to finance the printing of over 1.000 copies, in total, of the atlases of international migration and refugee migration launched by Unicamp in the first half of this year. The two atlases were produced within the scope of the Observatory of Migrations in São Paulo thematic project, which is based at the Population Studies Center "Elza Berquó" (Nepo) at Unicamp. The project is financed by the São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (Fapesp).
The new copies of the atlases – 500 of each – contain very current data regarding the arrival of foreigners to Brazil. While the original versions of both publications covered the period from 2000 to 2015, these funded by the MPT extend until July 2018. "Mapping migratory flows is very important for us", he stated last Friday (23) to Journal of Unicamp prosecutor Catarina Von Zuben, head of the National Coordination for the Eradication of Slave Labor (Conaete) of the MPT. "Our idea is to understand the characteristics of these flows so that we can act preventively."
Catarina was at Unicamp to deliver the updated atlases, in a symbolic way, to the Immigration Museum and the Paula Souza Center, which manages the Technical Schools (Etecs) and the Technology Colleges (Fatecs) of the State of São Paulo. The delivery was made at the University Rectory, in the presence of the rector Marcelo Knobel. Researcher Angélica Beghini thanked the Immigration Museum on behalf of the 700 copies destined for the institution. Centro Paula Souza, which kept the remaining 300 copies, was represented by its Project Coordinator, Davi Gutierrez.
The MPT did not choose the two intuitions that benefited from the donation by chance. As explained to the JU Professor Rosana Baeninger, coordinator of the Migration Observatory project, the Paula Souza Center requested at the beginning of the year the support of the "Sérgio Vieira de Mello" Refugee Chair, also coordinated by her, to train Etecs teachers in this area. Classes for teachers were taught on the premises of the Immigration Museum, which is, in turn, a Unicamp partner in the chair.
The Paula Souza Center will distribute the atlases received from the MPT among its 223 Etecs, in an action that will benefit more than 330 thousand students from all regions of the State. The Immigration Museum will deliver the copies destined for it to teachers who organize educational visits to the institution.
"For us, it is very important to bring knowledge to those who are being trained that the migrant, the refugee, is a person", highlighted Catarina Von Zuben in her brief speech during an event held at the Unicamp Rectory. Rector Marcelo Knobel reinforced the prosecutor's statement: "We are trying to act for the common good", she stated. "We will only be able to achieve this through dialogue, with a lot of emphasis on education. I see no other way."
Knobel made a point of highlighting that the data contained in the updated versions of the two atlases can be consulted by the entire society on the Nepo website. "It's impressive that data from July 2018 is already available. You can choose a neighborhood and see how many immigrants live there."
Read the full conversation below JU with prosecutor Catarina Von Zuben:
Jornal da Unicamp – Why was the MPT interested in reprinting the migration atlases produced by Nepo?
Catarina Von Zuben – The MPT has its own coordinator, Conaet, which specifically takes care of the eradication of slave labor. The migrant population is one of those most subject to this type of work, precisely because of its vulnerability. We are receiving waves of refugees, but the country does not have the structure, especially in terms of public policies, to promote the insertion of these people into the job market. Mapping migration flows is essential for us, because it helps us understand how they happen and what the trends are for the coming decades. One of the functions of the Public Prosecutor's Office, in addition to the repressive one, that most people are aware of, is preventive. Discovering where people are migrating allows us to anticipate possible submissions to slave labor. Preventing illegal activity is, for us, very important.
JU – What knowledge has the MPT already extracted from the two atlases?
Catarina Von Zuben – We understand that Brazil is not the destination country for these workers [foreigners who submit to slave labor]. It is not the "dream country", as it does not have the structure to receive them. It is a "bridge country". Migrants who come here stay here for a while; then, they either return to their country of origin, or go to other countries. We also discovered that there is a lot of South-South migration, starting from the African continent and Latin America itself. And we understand that there is no specific flow. There are migrants of various ethnicities, of various religions, who come here, only to return or continue from here to the United States or Europe, because there is a problem in their country of origin. The Southeast is still a dream region, especially São Paulo, and we have migrants from all over the world, mainly from the South of the planet.
Migrants who end up subjecting themselves to slave labor in Brazil mainly do what type of activity?
Catarina Von Zuben – It depends. We had flows of Haitians, many of whom were found in construction. We also had the case of Bolivians in sewing, in clothing, which practically the entire Brazilian population knows. Now, we have the issue of Venezuela. The labor that is coming from Venezuela is unqualified. Venezuelans with better qualifications went to the United States, to other places with better reception, which offer better living conditions. The ones I mentioned are the main niches in which immigrants are subjected to slave labor. But this largely depends on which areas there are no Brazilians working. Because Brazilians, no matter how bad their working conditions are, have an idea, even if incipient, of their citizenship and Brazilian legislation. Immigrants don't have this notion. They don't understand our legislation and many don't even speak Portuguese. They are extremely vulnerable people. They are the perfect clients for slave labor, unfortunately.
JU – What does MPT expect with the donation of the atlases to the Immigration Museum and the Paula Souza Center?
Catarina Von Zuben – We hope that the population, especially in the academic community and in basic schools, is aware of migratory flows and sees migrants as equals. We hope that people understand that we are all descendants of immigrants, that migrating is natural for human beings and that Brazilians are the result of migration. We want there to be no mistrust towards migrants, but rather acceptance; who understand that we need to live with each other peacefully. Basically, with the atlases, we want the population to have knowledge about the migration issue and not treat the migrant as someone who comes to steal their job.