Brazil To Reform Immigration Law In Bid To Attract Professionals From Abroad

The Associated Press reported on Friday that Brazilian officials have announced plans to change the country’s immigration laws in a bid to attract foreign professionals. “We want to attract talented people, and that means improving immigration laws in Brazil for those who are coming to work in the country,” Strategic Affairs Minister Marcelo Neri said on Thursday at a press conference for foreign media. The move, Neri added, is aimed especially at foreign engineers, doctors, and high-tech professionals from countries with a "linguistic affinity" -- like Italy, Spain, Portugal, and others in Latin America -- and is intended to balance what Brazilian officials say are nearly full employment rates in low-skill sectors with a need for qualified managers.

The minister said that the reform would include streamlining the process by which work visas for foreigners are obtained and making it easier for them to change jobs once in the country by doing away with the requirement that they request new visas to do so. The AP notes that a recent study carried out by the Fundacao Dom Cabral school of business found that 91 percent of companies say they find it difficult to hire qualified technicians, administrators and project managers.

Brazil has historically been one of the hemisphere’s immigrant magnets, but in recent times the percentage of those born abroad vis-à-vis the entire population has fallen. According to Brazil’s Jornal de Noticias, of the more than 200 million people who live in Brazil, only 0.3 were born abroad. And the Brazilian populace appears to hold welcoming attitudes toward immigrants, at least those who belong to the professional class which would be the object of the reform, with 74 percent saying they hold favorable attitudes toward them.