Italians in Brazil

Ethnicity of Italians in Brazil

Italobraziltsy - the fourth largest ethnic group in Brazil, immediately after the Portuguese , Afro-Brazilians and Brazilians of Indian origin. Italian surnames are often found among Brazilians.

Although Italians became victims of prejudice in the first decades, and were also persecuted during World War II , they managed to fit seamlessly into Brazilian society.

Brazilians of Italian descent are actively involved in all aspects of social life. Many Brazilian politicians , football players , artists and models have Italian roots. Among Italobraziltsy there are state governors , congressmen , mayors and ambassadors . Three Brazilian presidents were of Italian origin (although, oddly enough, they were not elected, but took office by necessity): Pasqual Ranieri Mazzilli (interim president), Itamar Franco (elected vice president , took office as president after resigning from the previous authorities) and Emilio Garrastazu Medisi (the general who served as president during the military regime). Medisi also had Basque roots. The clan of magnates Matarazzo is also known, the founder of which was Francesco Matarazzo

Citizenship

According to the Brazilian Constitution, anyone born in Brazil automatically acquires Brazilian citizenship. In addition, many born in Italy underwent naturalization after settling in Brazil. Recently, a significant part of Italobrazilians in turn received Italian citizenship as a second, without losing Brazilian in this way. Italian laws allow people of Italian descent to obtain citizenship under certain conditions, without requiring living in Italy and fluent knowledge of the Italian language .

Italian Crisis of the Late 19th Century

The Italian independent state was formed only in 1861 . Until that moment, Italy was politically divided into several kingdoms and small states. It was more a geographical region and a cultural-linguistic region ( Apennine Peninsula ) more or less uniform in language. This fact greatly influenced the character of Italian emigration. “Until 1914, a typical Italian migrant was a person without a clear national identity, but with a strong attachment to their native places, where about half of the migrants returned.” ^[4] Emigrants later felt a sense of national Italian identity and belonging to a single ethnic group, already in Brazil ^[5] .

In the 19th century, many Italians migrated due to political persecution, mainly after the failure of the revolutionary movements of 1848 and 1861. These educated groups of immigrants left a deep mark on the places of their settlement in Brazil. The most famous Italians in Brazil during this period were Giuseppe Garibaldi and Libero Badaro . Despite this, massive Italian immigration, which had a significant impact on Brazilian culture along with Portuguese and German, began only after the unification of Italy .

In the last quarter of the 19th century, the newly united Italy was in the midst of an economic crisis. In the northern regions , unemployment occurs due to the introduction of new technologies in agriculture , while southern Italy remains underdeveloped and untouched modernization of agricultural structures. The development of the Italian regions was very unequal, many were at the initial stage, until now there was a high illiteracy of the population (although more in the south than in the north of the country) ^[6] . Thus, poverty and lack of jobs encouraged northern (and partly southern) Italians to emigrate to Brazil (as well as to other countries such as Argentina and the USA ). Most Italian immigrants were very poor peasant farmers ^[7] .

Brazil needs immigrants

Shortage of workers

In 1850 , under pressure from England , Brazil finally passed a law banning the international slave trade . The implementation of this law was very irregular at the beginning (where does the Brazilian expression “para inglês ver” come from - it shows the British that there is a law, but in fact it is not implemented). But the growing pressure to abolish the death penalty, on the other hand, makes it clear that the times of slavery in Brazil have come to an end. The scale of the slave trade is indeed shrinking, but the remnants of the slavery system will continue to manifest itself for more than one year. Thus, European immigration to Brazil is becoming an important issue for Brazilian landowners. The latter argued that such migrants would soon become vital to Brazilian agriculture . They were right, and Brazil soon accepted the first wave of immigration.

In 1878, the “Congress of Agriculture” in Rio de Janeiro discussed labor shortages, and as a solution, the government was invited to stimulate European immigration to Brazil. Immigrants from Italy , Portugal and Spain were recognized as the most preferred, as they were white, and mainly Catholics . Thus, the Brazilian government began to attract Italian immigrants to work on coffee plantations .

Whitening Project

At the end of the 19th century, the Brazilian government was influenced by eugenic theories. According to scientists, emigrants from Europe were necessary to "improve" the population of Brazil. In 1889, laws were passed prohibiting the entry of Asian immigrants, the situation changed only with the "Immigration Law" of 1907 .

A growing number of European immigrants have convinced some scholars that within a few decades, blacks in Brazil will disappear through mixed marriages ^[8] .

On July 28, 1921, plenipotentiaries Andrade Bezerra and Cincinato Braga proposed a law, the first article of which read: "It is forbidden to immigrate black people to Brazil . " On October 22, 1923, the authorized Fidelis Reis issued another draft law on the entry of immigrants, the fifth article of which read: “Black people are not allowed to enter Brazil, and Asians are allowed 5% of the current number of Brazilians of Asian descent per year [...]” ^[9] .

In 1945, the Brazilian government issued a decree in favor of European immigration into the country: “The entry of immigrants is necessary for the preservation and development of the ethnic composition of the population with the help of the higher opportunities provided by the European origin of migrants” ^[9] .

First Italian Settlements in Brazil

An increase in Italian immigration to Brazil occurred after 1850 , when a law banning the international slave trade created a labor shortage . Then the Brazilian government, led by Emperor Pedro II , applied an open door policy towards European immigrants. The first colonies of immigrants ( colônias de imigrantes ) were created with the support of the emperor at the beginning of the XIX century . These colonies were founded in rural areas in the south of the country, settled by European families, mainly German immigrants. There, subsequently, settlements of Italians were founded.

The first groups of Italians arrived in 1875, but the boom period occurred at the very end of the 19th century, between 1880 and 1900, when almost a million Italian migrants arrived.

A large number of Italians underwent naturalization in Brazil at the end of the 19th century, when the Great Naturalization granted citizenship to all immigrants who arrived before November 15, 1889, “if they did not declare a desire to retain their original citizenship for six months” ^[10] .

In the last years of the 19th century, the press increased the number of reports of poor conditions in Brazil. Responding to press buzz and the large number of proven cases of ill-treatment of Italian immigrants, in 1902 the Italian government issued a decree prohibiting emigrants from leaving for Brazil. As a result, the number of Italian migrants fell sharply at the beginning of the 20th century , although periodic waves continued until 1920 ^[11] .

More than half of Italian immigrants came from the northern regions of Italy : Venice (about 30%), Lombardy , Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna . ^[6] On the other hand, in the 20th century, emigration from central and southern Italy predominated, in particular from Campania , Abruzzo , Molise , Basilicata and Sicily .

Southern Brazil

Southeast Brazil

• Italians
• Italo Americans
• Immigration to Brazil
• Brazil population

• Oriundi.net . A site for descendants from Italians in Brazil