The female face of migration in Brazil
By Felipe Herrera-Espaliat, special envoy to Brazil
Carmen Clara had been living in Brazil for four years when she started her own business. In 2017, she fled the economic and social crisis in her country, leaving her home and her tailor’s shop in Valencia, Venezuela, to settle in the city of Boa Vista with her daughter. There, they both worked as employees of a company that produced high-tech army clothing, but in 2020 they decided to try their luck further south and settled in Porto Alegre. It was then that they decided to take a risk, given that they had extensive experience in cutting and sewing and owned two sewing machines. The only thing they lacked was finance for raw materials, but obtaining credit from a bank seemed impossible, so their dream of starting their own business seemed shattered.
However, Carmen did not give up and found help at Cibai, an organization of Scalabrinian religious that for over 60 years has been assisting people who come from other nations to settle in Porto Alegre to achieve autonomy. At Cibai, her business plan was examined and she was granted a flexible credit, with which she bought fabrics and sewing cottons. Thus, at the end of 2021, she opened a simple tailer’s shop – “Clara’s Style” that, in a short time, became a successful business, thanks also to an online strategy that expanded her customer portfolio.
Today, five women work in the company to meet the numerous orders for clothing, especially professional uniforms. According to Carmen, the key to what she has achieved in Brazil is her unfaltering optimism. "You must never, ever be negative. From the moment you leave your country of origin, you must be positive, think 'yes, I can, yes, I want', even if you often find yourself in difficult situations," she says, while expressing her profound gratitude to Cibai.
Haitian delicacies
Rosemie Cavalier is also grateful for the work of the Scalabrinians. She arrived in Porto Alegre from Haiti four years ago, bringing with her the excellent gastronomic tradition of her homeland. At Cibai, she was able to attend courses in local cuisine and was invited to participate in various events where she could showcase her culinary creations. "I've always enjoyed experimenting and then letting others taste my products. So I did, and people encouraged me to prepare products to sell," says the Haitian woman about the motivation that led her to start her business.
Soon the word spread about her delicious delicacies, generating great interest and ending up being served at social gatherings. They are also delivered directly to homes by Rosemie's husband, Kelly Datus. While she cooks in their small apartment, he takes care of deliveries, activities that led to the creation of "Rose Delicious Food", a small business that is now the source of their livelihood.
Skill-based employment
At Cibai they don't just bet on entrepreneurship, but also on employability, acting as a link between migrants and a vast network of businesses. However, its major challenge is ensuring that people can access jobs that match their specific skills, which is not always easy. According to Adriana Araújo, coordinator of social-work inclusion, sometimes highly qualified professional figures arrive, such as lawyers, doctors, or engineers, and it is unsatisfactory for them to end up working in jobs like refrigerated storage for meat.
"In these cases, we would be causing more harm than service because these are migrants who are already in a condition of emotional fragility”. Perhaps for an engineer, we cannot find an engineering job, but we can find employment in a maintenance area which is closer to their skills," explains the social worker.
This wasn't the case for Venezuelan lawyer Carmen Estela Liscano, as Cibai proposed a tailor-made job for her. In 2021, the multinational elevator company TKE was looking for someone who could evaluate contracts with its clients and suppliers throughout Latin America and, consequently, possessed legal skills and spoke Spanish perfectly. During the selection process, TKE contacted Cibai which sent Carmen Estela's resumé. In a few days, she was hired, and according to her superiors, her work contribution was remarkable. Of course, it wasn't just her who benefited, but her whole family.
"Here in Brazil, life has changed definitively for me, for my daughters, and for my husband. God and life have offered us a new opportunity, for which I will be eternally grateful. I can only say that it has been positive, enriching. It has helped us as a family; migration has brought us together much more and has helped us come out stronger," says Carmen Estela.
Preferential options for women
São Paulo's megalopolis is also a frequent destination for those who come to settle in Brazil. In the Brás neighborhood, the Migrant Integration Centre (CIM) is run by the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Spirit, who are dedicated mainly to promoting women. Sister Janice Santos de Santana explains that they welcome many single mothers, as well as others who suffer from violence and exploitation in the workplace. Some of them work twelve-hour shifts and their children are taken care of in CIM's day-care centre in the afternoons.
In this institution, besides helping them regularize their residence permits, they are offered Portuguese courses and various vocational training courses. But the most difficult thing is to deal with the profound homesickness felt by women who travel alone and have been separated from their families. This is what happened to Crismarys Carrizales, who left her husband and two older children in Venezuela and came to Brazil with the youngest one. They have been apart for a year, and the only contact they have is through video calls.
"I try to keep in constant communication with them so they don't think I've abandoned them, but that I'm working for them to have a good future and can be here with me," explains Crismarys, who is saving as much as possible to send them tickets to Venezuela to reunite the family.
The economic issue is one of the central concerns of these women because they have to feed and clothe their children, as well as send money to their home countries when the situation allows. To help them in this regard, CIM has a shop that sells used clothes in excellent condition and at very low prices. "Many mothers work as seamstresses, making clothes every day, but when they want a gift for their children, they usually come to look for one in our bazaar," comments Sister Janice, whom Crismarys considers a friend and confidante.
The need to support migrant women increases every day in Brazil, in line with the increasing percentages of their presence in the country. According to the latest report from the International Migration Observatory, in ten years the percentage of female asylum seekers has increased from 10.5% to 45.4%; most come from Venezuela, Haiti, and Cuba. It's a reality that demands an increasingly urgent response from both the state and civil society, but that finds in a plurality of Catholic Church organizations a path already undertaken as well as vast experience of service to migrants.
This reportage was produced in collaboration with the Global Solidarity Forum.
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