Maxine L. Margolis

Little Brazil : an ethnography of Brazilian immigrants in New York City

Walking west on 46th Street in Manhattan, just three blocks from Rockefeller Centre, one passes Brazilian restaurants, the office of New Yorks Brazilian newspaper, a Brazilian travel agency, a business that sends remittances and wires flowers to Brazil, and a store that sells Brazilian food products, magazines, newspapers, videos and tapes. These businesses are the tip of an ethnic iceberg, an unseen minority estimated to number some 80,000 to l00,000 Brazilians in the New York metropolitan area alone. Despite their numbers, the lives of these people remain largely hidden to scholars and the public alike. This is an account of the lives of New Yorks Brazilians. Showing that these immigrants belie American stereotypes, the study reveals that they are largely from the middle strata of Brazilian society: many, in fact, have university educations. Not driven by dire poverty or political repression, they are fleeing from chaotic economic conditions that prevent them from maintaining a middle-class standard of living in Brazil. But despite their class origin and education, with little English and no work papers, many are forced to take menial jobs after their arrival in the United States.