Brazilian northeastern migration
[1] The strong process of economic development, driven mainly by the industrialization of the 1930-1980 period, especially in São Paulo, due to the accumulation of coffee since the 19th century and the import substitution and protectionist policies, favored the Southeast region of Brazil.
At the same time, the government took on a nationalistic tone and a relocation of people from the Northeast, where there was economic crisis, population surplus and scarcity of resources, to the center-south, where the situation was reversed, began.
[9] Similar to what happened with the European immigrants at the beginning of the century, the first migration flow from the north of Minas Gerais and the Northeast to São Paulo is related to the arrival of workers for farms that produced mainly cotton, coffee and, to a lesser extent, sugarcane.
The work was related to the production of these agricultural crops and also to the opening of forests connected with the appearance of new farms and the preparation of the land for planting or for livestock.
In the post-war period, encouraged by the industrialization policy and the 2/3 Law, which established a minimum quota of national workers, the migration from the Northeast became essentially urban.
[9][11] After 1980, there was also a migration to rural areas, mainly to the Ribeirão Preto and Franca region, related to the intensification of sugar cane planting stimulated by the Pro-Alcohol policy.
According to reports from the Secretary of Agriculture of the State of São Paulo, between 1935 and 1939, migration agencies had a preference for families consisting of three able-bodied workers between the ages of 12 and 55.
The government subsidy for migrants and the industrial economic concentration were important for the increase in the number of spontaneous workers who, through social networks, either family members or acquaintances, came to the state of São Paulo.
According to the study Nova geoeconomia do emprego no Brasil (English: New Geo-economics of Employment in Brazil), by the University of Campinas, the states of Ceará, Paraíba, Sergipe, and Rio Grande do Norte received more migrants between 1999 and 2004 than they sent to other regions.
[18] According to data from the National Household Sample Survey (Pnad) of 2009, released by the IBGE, Pernambuco was the northeastern state with the highest rate of return of migrants, followed by Rio Grande do Norte and Paraíba.
Due to their original material poverty and the unfavorable conditions found at their destination, Northeastern migrants were left to occupy the poor areas and the outskirts of urban centers.
In a country like Brazil where, to this day, the white European standard is the most valued, the massive presence of poor and mixed-race northeasterners in São Paulo makes this group be perceived as responsible for poverty, violence, unemployment, and the degradation of living conditions in the city.
In 2010, after the election of Dilma Rousseff as president, who obtained a majority of votes in the Northeast, Petruso posted the following message on a social network: "Northeasterners are not people.
