What would make Haitians migrate to Brazil?

The 2010 Earthquake in Haiti displaced over a million Haitians and over 220,000 people were killed, with over 3 million affected overall. (Benet) Haitians had no other option than to leave their homes to find refuge in other neighboring countries. Brazil being the spearhead of helping Haiti during this crisis has taken in over 85,000 Haitians into the country. Today, Brazil currently has about 143,000 Haitian migrants living in Brazil. Haitians had been migrating to Brazil even before the earthquake for the pursuit of a better life. Brazil in more recent years has become more politically and economically corrupt, leaving Haitians open to exploitation and a poorer way of life. Haitians in Brazil are not the only ones being exploited, other Brazilian citizens with African heritage suffer at the hands of discrimination in the country due to its instability. Haitian migrants are now looking at the possibility of trying to get into the United States from Brazil, still in their pursuit of a better life. 

Since the 2010 Earthquake Haitians have been dispersed throughout the world into neighboring countries for refuge and a better life. One of the main reasons Brazil was an easy choice for Haitians to move to was because of MINUSTAH. Brazil was the spearhead in helping Haiti after the earthquake. Brazil wanted to get more involved on an international scale, proving its importance and worth. Brazil back in 2010 was ranked number 7 in the world or GDP, helping Haiti would only add to being a bigger player on the international field. “Brazil has a long-standing history of friendship with Haiti and has provided critical support in peace-keeping and security efforts over the past years. Haiti and the international community will also benefit from Brazil’s vast development experience in the planning and implementation of reconstruction. We all look forward to Brazil's contributions in shaping the HRF into an effective mechanism for investing in a more prosperous future for the Haitian people,” added Zoellick."(World Bank) The image below shows the population dispersal of Haitian migrants in other countries. 

Brazil's current state of infrastructure is in decline. They have cities that resemble much of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, where there are shanty towns stacked on top of one another while the middle class and elites have space and prosperity. In more recent years the international community has been giving Brazil some advice on how to best go about fixing its infrastructure. Some of those suggestions include prioritizing Brazil’s new pipeline “BR do Mar” or “Ocean Highway” since Brazil highly utilizes its transportation sector which includes, “cargo rail, passenger rail, logistics infrastructure, roads, ports, public transportation, urban mobility, and smart transportation systems.”(International Trade Administration) Due to its poor infrastructure, it is costing Brazil more money to keep the sector afloat when they should just invest in advancing it. There is a link that people and countries can donate to “Ocean Highway” that gives the amounts of money each sector has raised so that they can fix the poor infrastructure. This is the link: https://www.gov.br/infraestrutura/pt-br/assuntos/concessoes/projetos Another suggestion given is to address their water and wastewater subsector. “The sector is expected to undergo increased privatization, injecting new capital into projects and utilities.”(International Trade Administration) There is a lot of money and resources being lost because of the lack of infrastructure in this sector. Currently, “Brazilian cities lose more than 39% of the water produced between the water refinery and the faucet… and Only 30.3% of Brazilian cities monitor its water resources” (International Trade Administration). With droughts and the potential future of water wars, minimizing the amount of water lost in Brazil is key to helping it prosper. Brazil capitalizing on these suggestions would then allow for its own citizens to prosper as well as the Haitians who live there as well. The below image depicts Brazil's housing stacked on top of one another due to infrastructure instability. 

In order for Haitian migrants to no longer seek out other countries for a better life, we must rebuild their home country. The international community, which includes Brazil, has been in constant contact with Haiti to try and rebuild its infrastructure. According to WorldBank, “The Infrastructure and Institutions Emergency Recovery Project (IIERP) was designed to support Haiti’s government in its post-disaster sustainable recovery efforts through interventions to rebuild key institutions and infrastructure.” (World Bank Group) With this being said their purpose was to find long-term solutions on how to fix Haiti. Some of the aid was directed towards the Restoration of Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), the clean up of the aftermath of the earthquake, and created the Building Technical Evaluation Unit, which only helped and strengthened Haiti after the Earthquake. As has been mentioned countless times during this course, I believe that the way to rebuild Haiti is to invest in the people who live there rather than give money to the government which is corrupt. Addressing the governmental corruption in Haiti would much better aid the state and people. There have already been moves to help Haiti from international countries such as the US and Brazil. An example of this would be Haiti INVEST. “The goal of Haiti INVEST is to increase the flow of investment to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Haiti. While the program does identify some key sectors of interest, namely housing, agriculture, and tourism.”(US Embassy) The purpose of this program is to help build back the Haitian economy. Although it comes from outside aid it does address key sectors that Haiti is known for, such as agriculture and tourism. 

Brazil at the time was a haven for Haitian migrants when they had no home to go to. Haitians are still looking to travel to the United States in hope of a better life. In order for Brazil to maintain its people as well as its Haitians, there needs to be an investment in infrastructure and public works. Due to the lack of infrastructure in Brazil, Haitians are moving towards other ABC countries as well as the United States.  If the Brazilian government invests in their infrastructure and people then Haitians will no longer have to keep migrating. For example, in September of 2021 in the United States, we saw US Border Patrol stop Haitian migrants via horseback from coming into the states illegally. They had come through the Texan border, many traveled from Brazil to reach the US border. The images that were taken of the “arrests” of these people are viewed in a scrutinous way because of how they were treated. Today, those same Haitian migrants are suing the Biden Administration for the mistreatment they endured. (Alvarez) The instability within Brazil causes Haitian migrants to then leave that county to try to have a better life. The image above depicts “Infrastructure Spending, 2000-2013, percent of GDP” with Brazil highlighted in pink.