Brazilian Americans
[2] The largest wave of Brazilian migration to the United States occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a response to hyperinflation in Brazil.
[7] In 1976, the U.S. Congress passed the Hispanic-American Voting Rights Act which mandated the collection and analysis of data on Hispanic Americans.
Ana Cristina Martes, a professor of sociology at Fundação Getúlio Vargas Brazil, helped explain the first few migratory trips to the U.S. which took place in Boston.
Neoclassical Economics Theory explains the beginning flow of migration in 1980 indicating that individuals were rational actors who looked for better opportunities away from home to improve his/her lifestyle.
Since the crisis hit the Brazilian middle class hard, many chose to leave to optimize their income, find better jobs, and more stable social conditions by doing marginal benefit analysis.
The increase in acceptance was due to two main factors: the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act and economic and political turmoil in Brazil.
[19] The top three classes of admissions for Brazilians obtaining lawful permanent status in the U.S. in 2016 was family-sponsored, employment, and immediate relatives of U.S. citizens.
[12] Second-and third-generation Brazilian Americans tend to have better jobs; they have been educated in the United States, speak English, and have citizenship.
[12] A certain amount of Brazilians have middle to upper class socioeconomic status in Brazil so when they immigrate into the United States they are able to blend into certain American communities.
As they received a higher amount of education in Brazil compared to the general population it only eases that transition into American communities, as a result some may seek to attain citizenship which only further allows Brazilians to fit into that middle class category.
[23] Due to the increase of Brazilian Americans residing in the United States there are many concerns regarding the preservation of certain traditions and also while maintaining Portuguese as their heritage language.
[23] Studies that took place in Newark, New Jersey revealed before the COVID-19 pandemic that many Brazilian-Americans had underlying conditions such as uncontrolled hypertension and obesity, but only 8% had health insurance.
[25] However, systemic barriers persist, Immigrant communities such as Brazilian Americans, are negatively impacted by inadequate public health infrastructure and the lack of culturally acceptable care.
[25][26] Although the majority of Brazilian Americans are Roman Catholic, there also significant numbers of Protestants (Mainline, Evangelical, Pentecostalism, Non-denominational Protestantism etc.
), LDS,[27] Orthodox, Irreligious people (including atheists and agnostics), followed by minorities such as Spiritists, Buddhists, Jews and Muslims.
As with wider Brazilian culture, there is set of beliefs related through syncretism that might be described as part of a Spiritualism–Animism continuum, that includes: Spiritism (or Kardecism, a form of spiritualism that originated in France, often confused with other beliefs also called espiritismo, distinguished from them by the term espiritismo [de] mesa branca), Umbanda (a syncretic religion mixing African animist beliefs and rituals with Catholicism, Spiritism, and indigenous lore), Candomblé (a syncretic religion that originated in the Brazilian state of Bahia and that combines African animist beliefs with elements of Catholicism),[12] and Santo Daime (created in the state of Acre in the 1930s by Mestre Irineu (also known as Raimundo Irineu Serra) it is a syncretic mix of Folk Catholicism, Kardecist Spiritism, Afro-Brazilian religions and a more recent incorporation of Indigenous American practices and rites).
[28] Brazilians began immigrating to the United States in large and increasing numbers in the 1980s as a result of worsening economic conditions in Brazil at that time.
[12] More women have immigrated to the United States from Brazil than men, with the 1990 and 2000 U.S. censuses showing there to be ten percent more female than male Brazilian Americans.
[31] University of Arizona [33] professor Elaine Rubinstein-Avila notes that Brazilian American newspapers are thriving in Massachusetts communities.
