The new “El Dorado”: Brazilian migration in the Iberian peninsula. the profile of the Brazilian immigrant in Madrid

Duval Fernandes, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais

Following the opposite way of Portuguese and Spanish immigrants, thousands of brazilian people have chosen Portugal and Spain like a country for destine, for trying a new life. This work, a survey with more de 400 interviews, aims to show the profile of these immigrants, in Madrid. They are more educated people than the brazilian average. They leave behind stable jobs and in Madrid have no regular jobs with salaries that variety from 1.000 to 800 euros a month. In this aspect, the majority of men works in civil construction, while women are daily maids The migration projects are, in a first moment, short-lasting, not much than two years, and the main goal is to build the own house. The constant worries are about sending money, received from jobs, for being saved in Brazil. Saving money will help them to build their houses. There are no formal supporting organizations to brazilian that live in Madrid, but the space is occupied by Protestant temples with brazilian priests. Despite the small representation of these immigrants in the total foreign population in Spain, the role of brazilian people in this country, because of their profile, is the beginning of a migratory flow in a considerable importance.