Beatriz Heredia

An analysis of the regional impacts of land reform in Brazil

This article aims to portray short, medium and long-term change processes brought about by the establishment of rural settlements in Brazil. The goal was to apprehend the transformations in the lives of the settlers, in the settlements and in the regions where these are located. The article is based on a study that carried out in some of the Brazilian regions that had the greatest concentration of settlement projects and number of families of settlers per unit of territory (termed zones). The basic premise was that this concentration stemmed from struggles, and that the proximity of several projects has served to multiply their effects.

Migrations et stratégies familiales dans les régions d’agrobusiness

Au Bresil, le developpement de l’agrobusiness va de pair avec une forte croissance demographique. L’enquete a ete menee dans la zone de production de soja autour de la route BR-163, au Mato Grosso, et celle du cafe do cerrado, dans le triangle Mineiro/Alto Paranaiba, au Minas Gerais. Mobilisee pour repondre aux besoins de main-d’œuvre, l’immigration interregionale redessine les clivages au sein de la population de ces territoires. Dans ces espaces de competition economique, entre gauchos et maranhenses, ou paulistas et baianos, les rapports de force se redistribuent en fonction du lieu de naissance des migrants.