"Venezuelan Refugees in Brazil: Is Xenophobia Replacing Kindness?"
Wilder Alejandro Sanchez
Providence Magazine
19 September 2018
Originally published:
https://providencemag.com/2018/09/venezuelan-refugees-in-brazil-is-xenophobia-replacing-kindness/
The number of Venezuelan citizens
fleeing their homeland continues to grow due to the ongoing political and socioeconomic crisis in the country. While most Venezuelans have fled
to Colombia
(and from there to other countries), many have crossed into Brazil and
settled in Roraima, a state that borders Venezuela.
The Brazilian
government, broadly speaking, has been supportive of the Venezuelan
refugees, but there have sadly been xenophobic incidents in recent
weeks. As Brazil’s general elections are less than a month away on
October 7, the question of what to do with these “others” has also
become an electoral tool.
This situation is not new. When nations anywhere in the world receive an influx of migrants, the former can either be acceptive
Good Samaritans
of the latter, or turn a blind eye to their neighbors’ suffering. And
the Bible tells us, “do to others what you would have them do to you”
(Matt. 7:12).
The Situation Deteriorates
There are varying figures regarding how many Venezuelans have crossed into Brazil. A September 18 conference at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in
Washington, DC, mentioned that there were an estimated 20,000
Venezuelan migrants and refugees in Brazil in 2017. Moreover, some
media sources
report that around 16,000 Brazilians applied for refugee status in the
first half of 2018, and another 13,000 did so in 2017. Nevertheless,
this influx of migrants in a relatively short time frame makes counting
them properly difficult. The
UN estimates that
around 800 Venezuelans cross the border every day. According to
different outlets, some Venezuelans cross the border to apply for
refugee status while others who
cross already have visas or even no documentation.
The Brazilian military has transported Venezuelan
families to states like Parana
to ease the pressure on Roraima. Unfortunately, as the crisis continues
we can expect more Venezuelans seeking refuge in Brazil.
While the general population and government seem to support the Venezuelans, there have been troubling incidents. For example,
in August a Brazilian judge ordered
the closure of the border, though that order was ultimately rescinded.
More xenophobic attacks against the Venezuelans took place in Roraima in
mid-August
when “a mob of Brazilians” attacked Venezuelans because a business
owner reported migrants had robbed him. Unfortunately, social media
exacerbated the situation when some incorrectly claimed that the victim
had been murdered. Because of the attack, an estimated
1,200 Venezuelans fled back across the border.
According to the Venezuelan daily El Nacional,
four Venezuelans in fact robbed the business owner, but neither he nor
his spouse was murdered. Sadly, one (certainly deplorable) incident and a
lie were enough to promote a violent attack against innocent
Venezuelans.
Many residents of Roraima appear to accept the Venezuelan refugees. But after the mob attack,
a local hotel owner
was less charitable: “We have finally cleaned the city of the
undesirable, who did not want to work and spent all day in the street
not doing anything. Now [the town of] Pacaraima is pretty and clean like
before. And I hope it stays like that.”
Xenophobia as a Political Tool
Equally troubling is that the Venezuelan refugees are becoming part
of the political discourse leading up to Brazil’s general elections on
October 7, and the aforementioned incident showcases what is on the
Roraiman electorate’s mind. At a September 4 on-the-record
conference
on Brazil’s elections at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC, experts
on Brazil explained that Roraima favors Jair Bolsonaro, the
controversial right-wing presidential candidate, because of his populist
and extremist rhetoric. Regarding the Venezuelan question, the
candidate has declared that he favors creating refugee camps, as the
Venezuelans “
are causing instability” in the city of Boa Vista, Roraima.
This situation should be familiar to the reader. A country receives
an unexpectedly large number of immigrants who speak another language
and have different customs. While some locals are willing to accept
their fellow human beings in need, others distrust these “others.”
Even more, certain political movements can resort to extremist
rhetoric to capitalize on local populations’ resentments and concerns.
For instance, the far-right, anti-immigration
Sweden Democrats won a significant number of votes in Sweden’s election this month.
An NPR analysis
of this election explained that the party “scored about 18 percent of
the vote, up from 13 percent in the last election, as many voters took a
stand against recent record immigration to the country, a strain on
social services that some have linked to that, and rising numbers of
shootings in areas with high immigrant populations.” Similarly, US
President Donald Trump has focused on
undocumented migrants to the US, and even friendly governments (i.e.,
Canada), as the sources of US problems.
Final Thoughts
Developed nations like Sweden or the US continue to receive a steady
stream of refugees that escape poverty, violence, and instability in
their homelands. Similarly, the crisis in Venezuela has turned nearby
developing nations, like Brazil, into recipients of refugees who search
for a better life. Without a doubt, Brasilia, Stockholm, and Washington
cannot accept an endless flux of refugees without taking into
consideration how a sudden demographic shift may impact the country’s
own population, positively or negatively.
At the same time, compassion and empathy are key aspects of what
makes us human. Thus, migration policies should be rational, but
also humane. The masses escaping Venezuela or the conflict areas in the Middle East are not doing so because they
want to, but because they
have to, and the occasional “rotten apple” (like Venezuelan criminals in Brazil) should not promote hate toward all migrants.
—
Wilder Alejandro Sanchez is an analyst who focuses
on geopolitical, military, and cybersecurity issues. The views expressed
in this article are those of the author alone and do not necessarily
reflect those of any institutions with which the author is associated.
