“Saia do Brasil Agora!:” The Anticipatory Politics of Brazilian Emigration

• In Event: Migration, Family Life, and Labor Segmentation Across Borders

Abstract

In August 2018, an immigration consultant based in Vancouver, Canada published a YouTube video titled “Saia do Brasil Agora e Vá para o Canadá!” The short video makes an emphatic and succinct argument to Brazil’s middle and upper-class citizens that now is the time to emigrate not only because of current political and economic struggles, but also out of an expectation that the country’s conditions will only deteriorate. In short, the video’s message is to get out before things get any worse. This sense of an impending or intensifying crisis has led to a recent surge in middle and upper-class Brazilians seeking to move abroad. More than half of college-educated Brazilians say they would like to emigrate, and various countries including Portugal, Israel, Australia and Canada have recently received a record number of visa and citizenship applications from Brazilians. Based on ethnographic research with Brazilians who have recently moved to Vancouver, Canada, this paper examines the desires, fears, and aspirations of emigrating Brazilians. While many cite Brazil’s declining economy, political crisis, and increasing violence as reasons for their departure, few had yet to lose a job, experience a major financial hardship, or undergo another kind of adverse event. Rather, their departure from Brazil is motivated by a prospective concern for the future, by a generalized alarm over crises yet to come. The current emigration of relatively well-off Brazilians can therefore be understood as an anticipatory politics that has the potential to both evoke and produce an imagined, dreaded futurity.

Author

• Kathleen M Millar, Simon Fraser University