During a public hearing of the Committee for External Relations and National Defense, which discussed social, economic and political issues related to immigration and to foreign labor in Brazil, on Tuesday (11/25), the associate sub-chief for Governmental Matters of the State Office, Darci Bertholdo announced that the Executive Power should send to Congress, before the end of the year, a bill about the new immigration law.

According to the President of the National Council for Immigration and general coordinator of Immigration in the Ministry of Labour, Paulo Sérgio Almeida, the Foreigners Act (Law 6.815) of 1980 is totally outdated and reflects the time in which it was conceived, during military regime. "There was then a worry with national safety, with control, since the foreigners were seen as harmful, threatening. It is currently clear that they come to Brazil to contribute with their work, their culture and their knowledge”, he affirmed.

Darci Bertholdo said that the bill, with more than 160 articles, will have a more humanitarian and modern approach on the subject, and will be coherent with international laws about immigration.

The Chief of the Immigration Division of the Ministry of External Relations, Ralph Peter Henderson, highlighted that the member-countries of Mercosul do not accept the criminalization of immigration, what is about to happen in Europe and has already occurred in the US. Therefore, he affirmed, Brazil does not pursue illegal immigrants.

Amnesty
In reply to the author of the requirement for the hearing, Deputy William Woo (PSDB-SP), the director of the Foreigners Department of the Justice Ministry confirmed that the federal government is studying a new amnesty to illegal immigrants. The ministry estimates that there are 50,000 of them in Brazil. Pestana informed that the government wants to avoid the mistakes of former amnesties – the last one happened 10 years ago –, in which they charged high fees from the immigrants applying to legalization.

Ralph Henderson Said that there are many illegal immigrants that are being exploited and do not have access to the basic rights of citizenship. According to him, if someone is paying these people for a certain job, it means this job is necessary, and thus the immigrant contributes with the country. The amnesty would be the only way to prevent these professionals to be exploited. He highlighted that the objective of Brazilian politics is to integrate immigrants to Brazil.

Luciano Pestana informed that Brazil has more than 880,000  immigrants regularly established in the country. In decreasing order, the groups come from Portugal, Japan, Italy, Spain, Argentina, Bolivia, Germany, Uruguay, United States and China.

Visas
William Woo affirmed that companies complain that the legalization procedure for their employees is extremely long. He asked the representative of the Labor Ministry about the existence of proposals aiming at changing this situation.

Paulo Sérgio Almeida answered that they are struggling to explain to the companies settling in Brazil how to obtain the necessary documentation. According to him, the procedures have been streamlined and can now be done through the internet. The problems occur when companies apply for many employees at once. In this case, it is necessary to make a more careful analysis, since labor ministry wants to avoid unfair competition with Brazilian labor.

According to Almeida, the entrance of experts is important for Brazilian economy, since they bring knowledge that is transmitted to Brazilians. Nevertheless, we cannot allow them to bring in foreign employees just because they will earn a smaller wage than Brazilians.

Report - Vania Alves
Editing- João Pitella Junior
Translation: Positive