Haitian Immigration to Brazil and the Physical, Psychic and Cultural Borders

Abstract

In this text I seek to discuss Haitian immigration to Brazil, taking into consideration two specific aspects: (i) the psychic and cultural boundary that exists about the detachment of Haiti from other countries, such as Brazil; and (ii) the physical border in relation to the path that Haitian immigrants take to reach Brazil, mainly through the city of Assis Brasil, which corresponds to the Acre border with Peru and Bolivia. As a methodology of this text, I use a literature book entitled "Failures" by Haitian writer Yanick Lahens who wrote about experiences lived by the Haitian population after the January 2010 earthquake; I also discuss from interviews conducted between 2016 and 2019 with Haitians living in the city of Cascavel-PR about: their life, immigration and work histories, seeking to synthesize not only immigration but the aspect of emigration. From this evidence, I present in this text that beyond the physical boundaries, the boundaries established in the popular imagination about immigrants from a poor country, located in what labor sociology has defined as the “periphery” of capitalism, have strong implications for their lives. , whether on the journey to reach Brazil that highlights the difficulties such as hunger, thirst and the search for survival or also in the experiences of strenuous and precarious work that they are forced to do to maintain not only their own survival, but their own. family who remained in Haiti and awaits the money sent monthly.