International migration in Brazil in the period 2005-2010, highlighting direct and indirect effects of Brazilian return immigration

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyze international migration in Brazil during the period 2005-2010, with special emphasis on return immigration of Brazilians and their indirect effects, based on information from the 2010 Demographic Census, international migration, based on the last stage and fixed dates, as well as emigration abroad, based on the new item introduced in the last census. At a later stage, indirect effects of international return immigration to Brazil are estimated. Among the results, we highlight the following: the volume of immigrants and emigrants is relatively small, in relation to the size of the Brazilian population; the difference between the last-stage international migrations would lead to a mistaken conclusion, of a slight negative balance in the period 2005-2010. However, when considering immigrants whose last migratory stage is internal and resided in a different country in 2005, the migratory balance becomes slightly positive. It can be affirmed that international migrations in the period 2005-2010 did not have a significant impact on the size and composition of the Brazilian population. Of the 361,800 international immigrants from the last stage of the period 2005-2010, 68.8% were Brazilian born. When taking into account its indirect effects, it can be concluded that return migration in Brazil, in the period, explains 75.5% of its immigration flows.

Key words
Brazil; International immigration; International emigration; International return immigration; Direct and indirect effects of international return immigration