[8] The first substantial Asian immigration to Brazil were a small number of Chinese people (3,000) during the colonial period as coolie slaves.

Later waves of Chinese immigrants would come from Hong Kong and Macau, the latter being a former Portuguese colony,[9] as well as China's ethnic Russian community during the 1950s.

Until 1922, Levantine immigrants were considered "Turks", as they carried passports issued by the Turkish Ottoman Empire, which then ruled over present-day Lebanon.

Although discussions were situated in a theoretical field, immigrants arrived and colonies were founded through all this period (the rule of Pedro II), especially from 1850 on, particularly in the Southeast and Southern Brazil.

These discussions culminated in the Decree 528 in 1890, signed by Brazil's first President Deodoro da Fonseca, which opened the national harbors to immigration except for Africans and Asians.