Argentina - IOM, in partnership with the National Immigration Council of Brazil, has presented findings on research on the profile of Haitian migrants in the Brazilian labour market.

The study comes at a time when Haitians have become one of the biggest immigrant cohorts in the Brazilian labour market. According to the study, the total number of Haitians formally employed in Brazil grew from 815 in 2011 to 30,484 in 2014, the vast majority concentrated in the southern part of the country (São Paulo, Parana, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul).

Field research was conducted through interviews and focus groups in the State of Parana and in the Federal District of Brasilia. Most of the Haitians interviewed came from Port-au-Prince and Gonaives and were mostly men at working age (20-49), with middle-school level of education (complete or incomplete), the study says.

The research shows that Haitians in Brazil are employed in sectors such as construction (37 percent) and poultry slaughtering (33 percent), followed by the refrigeration industry (12 percent), restaurants (11 percent) and cleaning services (7 percent).

The study also shows that Haitian women who participated in the study are mostly employed in restaurants and cleaning services, while men are mainly employed in construction sector and poultry industry.

According to IOM Regional Project Development Officer Matteo Mandrile: “The study highlights that Haitian migration to Brazil has both humanitarian and economic roots and peaked between 2013 and 2014.”

After the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Brazil has emerged as a new popular destination for Haitians. In order to reduce the number of Haitian migrants falling prey to migrant smuggling and trafficking networks, the Government of Brazil issued Normative Resolution “RN 97” in 2012, which introduced humanitarian permanent visas for Haitians.

In 2015, IOM established the Brazil Humanitarian Visa Application Center (BVAC) in Port-au-Prince, as a way to speed up the processing of humanitarian visas, in response to concern over the growing number of people travelling to Brazil irregularly through the State of Acre via Peru.

“The BVAC has played a crucial role in reducing irregular migration to Brazil and fostering the formal employability of Haitian migrants, with more 23,000 humanitarian visa applications processed in the last 12 months,” said BVAC project manager Shauna Martin, presenting the centre’s first annual report.

Download a summary of the report here (in Portuguese): https://www.iom.int/sites/default/files/press_release/file/Insertion-of-Haitian-migrants-in-the-Brazilian-labor-market_%20IOM-Study.pdf

For further information, please contact Juliana Quintero at the IOM Regional Office in Buenos Aires, Tel. + (54) 11 5219 2033, Email: juquintero@iom.int