Circularidade na fronteira do Paraguai e Brasil: o estudo de caso dos "brasiguaios"

Abstract

The mass emigration of Brazilians from Brazil to Paraguay began at the end of the 1950's, and it was intensified in the following two decades (the 1960's and the 1970's), and the last two decades have given place to an international migration of Brazilians returning from Paraguay. This phenomenon, along with the development of commercial businesses in the border region and the displacements that mark an international transborder circulation between Brazil and Paraguay, configures some of the factors that have contributed to the formation of brasiguaia, a transnational community. Residing in Paraguay and circulating through the national borders of Paraguay and Brazil is a common practice amongst "brasiguaios", especially those who live in Paraguayan cities bordering Brazil. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the motivations of the "brasiguaio", to investigate why they circulate between the borders of Paraguay and Brazil, more specifically, those "brasiguaios" residing in Paraguayan cities bordering Brazil. The current information in the Brazilian demographic censuses allows us to identify which part of the returning population actually originated from Paraguay, as well as discover which cities have received most of this population in recent years. However, the sociodemographical attributes of the "brasiguaios" which reside in Paraguay are not caught by the Brazilian censuses, much less the relative information concerning underlying motivations for their transit on the border of Paraguay and Brazil. The Paraguayan censuses, in turn, do not provide this information about its residents either. Realizing these, the qualitative technique was chosen as most appropriate in order to investigate the motivations for the intense transit of the brasiguaios between the borders of Paraguay and Brazil. Thirty-nine in-depth interviews took place with the brasiguaios residents in Ypehjú, Salto del Guairá e Pedro Juan Caballero. It was established that the circulation of the "brasiguaios" between the national borders of Paraguay and Brazil is motivated by the demand of public services in the areas of health and education, social aides and benefits, shopping, visits, religion and work. These demands reveal different strategies of adaptation and survival of the brasiguaios, the residents of Paraguayan cities bordering Brazil, and the importance of their personal networks to exchange resources, information and solidarity that allow them to have access to Brazilian goods and services. Moreover call attention to the public policy makers in the national border regions of Brazil, and make them aware that this large circulation can possibly interfere with the balance of offers and demands of public Brazilian services.