Brazilian Government Changes Immigration Policy; Jewish Immigrants Welcome, Minister Assures (By our Rio de Janeiro correspondent)
Jewish public opinion in Brazil was greatly perturbed recently over reports which were supposed to have originated from official circles and which indicated an unfavorable turn in the government’s policy toward immigration.
Of late considerable numbers of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe have been arriving in Brazil. The Jewish community in Brazil numbers today 30,000, of whom 14,000 are concentrated in Rio de Janeiro. Communities of 3,000 to 4,000 each are to be found in San Paulo and Porto Allegro. In the other centers, such as Pernambuco, Bahia, Santos. Santa Maria, Curetiba and Cruz Alta, there are about 5,000 Jews. Four thousand are scattered throughout the country and in the Ica colonies in Southern Brazil.
The control of Jewish immigration to Brazil was, one could say, in the hands of the Jewish Colonization Association which until recently had, on the basis of an agreement with the government, the right to organize groups of Jewish migrants from Eastern Europe for immigration to the country. The Jewish Relief Society which is functioning here to aid the immigrants has of late started to expand its activity in this direction.
The rumors that a stoppage of Jewish immigration to Brazil is threatening had their origin in the recent passage of a law intended to exclude Communists from the country. This bill contained the provision authorizing the immigration officials to protect the country from “an undesirable immigration.”
Immigration to Brazil, in so far as the government regulations were concerned, was divided into two branches. There was an immigration which was organized and controlled by the government and its agents. This class of immigrants were mainly contract laborers who were attracted to Brazil for the needs of the coffee plantations in San Paulo. The second type of immigrants were those of the so-called spontaneous immigration wave. The people came on their own accord and at their own expense. The government policy was liberal and encouraging, not only with regard to the first, which was a state need, but also with regard to the second. The contracted laborers were mainly drawn from among the Ukrainians in East Galicia and Volyin, Poland. The spontaneous immigration consisted of groups of Portuguese. Italians. Germans and of late of considerable numbers of Jewish immigrants.
About ninety percent of the Jewish immigrants, according to statistics compiled by the Jewish Relief Society in Rio de Janeiro came from Poland, Roumania. Lithuania and Russia.
If the reports that were circulated prove to be true, it would signify a heavy blow to these numbers of home seeking Jews who have to emigrate from Eastern Europe and who might, by stretching a point of the law, be excluded by the arbitrary wish of the immigration officials.
The fears in this direction were dispelled, however, by the Brazilian Minister of Agriculture, Lira Castra. In an interview with M. Regalski, one of the editors of the Buenos Aires Yiddish daily. “The Yiddishe Zeitung,” who visited Brazil, the Minister explained the new immigration policy of the Brazilian government as applying only to contracted labor. The attitude of the government toward the spontaneous and free immigration has, however, remained unchanged.
“Our government has of late decided to discontinue organized immigration to Brazil. We have ceased to contract alien labor for the plantations. All previous privileges for this type of immigrants have been discontinued. We will thus be unable to extend these privileges, in whatever form they may be, to the Jewish immigrants. Naturally the same applies to the type of immigrants brought over by the Ica. However, we continue our positive attitude toward the free immigration to Brazil.
“In this respect,” the Minister continued, “we make no differentiation of the various nationalities. In particular, we have not issued any ordinance, through legislative channels or through the administration, which would prevent Jews from immigrating to Brazil. I would ask you to let it be known that the government of the Brazilian Republic does not differentiate between one people and another and that we will welcome among us Jewish immigrants who are, without a doubt, of benefit to the Brazilian Republic. Brazil will be a hospitable and good home for the new citizens who are desirous of coming here.”
The statement of the Minister of Agriculture is substantially true. The Jewish immigrants who come to Brazil are anxious to leave behind them their old political allegiances and expunge the memories of economic plight and political persecution. They are feverishly engaged in building their homes and in forming a new Jewish community in the new environment. In this work they find no articles. For instance, naturalization encounters no difficulties. However, the graded statement of the Minister clearly indicates that together with the decision to case the first type of immigration. there manifests itself a change in the attitude toward East European immigration which is described as “undesirable.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
