Brazil May Create Congressional Seats for Brazilians in US, Abroad

Brazil's Senator Cristovam Buarque defends an amendment that would create four Congressional positions to represent Brazilians living outside of the country. (courtesy photo: AGENCIA SENADO)

The Senate of Brazil is debating an amendment to the nation’s Constitution to approve the creation of at least four congressmen positions to represent the country’s workers who live abroad in the US, Japan, Europe, and the rest of the world.

Fifty-nine senators voted in favor of the amendment, authored in 2005 by Senator Cristovam Buarque of Brasilia, during a session of the Senate last Thursday, April 2, 2009. 

Brazilians in Massachusetts celebrated the victory, although the amendment still faces an uphill battle.  Before it can get passed into law, it must go through one more voting session in Brazil’s Senate, and two in the House.

Currently 3 million Brazilians live worldwide, outside of Brazil, sending about $5 billion back home every year.  The Brazilian state of Alagoas, with a population of 2.9 million people, has more natives who live abroad than in the state itself.

“Put it this way: Imagine if Pernambuco [a northern state in Brazil with population of 6 million] did not have its own congressmen.  You [Brazilians living in the US] all represent a state,” said Sen. Buarque during a live interview on “Conexao Brasil,” an evening radio show on Portuguese-language WSRO (650 AM) radio station in Framingham, Mass.

If Buarque’s amendment gets Congressional approval, Brazil will join a select group of European countries – such as Italy, Spain and Portugal – that already have passed similar proposals.  The new congressmen would be picked among the several communities abroad with the help of Pro-Citizenship United, a Massachusetts committee of Brazilians whose own statue guarantees that its members cannot run for the new political seats.

Last month representatives of Pro-Citizenship United visited Brazil’s Congress in the capital city of Brasilia.  The representatives – a pastor, an activist and a real estate broker – were hosted by the Senate president, José Sarney, a former president of Brazil, and the House’s leader, Michel Temer, feeling confident the amendment had some traction.

“We’ve been working hard for several months and never had any financial support,” said Pablo Maia, the group’s spokesperson and owner of Pablo Maia Realty Group in Framingham. “We’re doing this for our children and grandchildren.”

The news of a possible representative from Brazil stationed in the US spread fast.  Brazilians in Massachusetts celebrated the possibility that they could have someone who would be able to deal with renewal of documents, retirement, and healthcare issues.  Current legislation in Brazil allows overseas citizens only the right to vote in presidential elections.

“This victory belongs to every immigrant woman, who rises early every day, works hard cleaning homes, and still takes care of [her] husband and children,” said Claudia Tamsky, a longtime community activist and caseworker at the Framingham Community Health Center.

Opposition

The amendment faces fierce public opposition in Brazil. Only hours after O Globo, Brazil’s major daily newspaper, published a story about the vote in the Senate, hundreds of readers criticized the amendment.

Although many of them agreed that Brazilian workers living abroad deserve to gain more political representation, they bashed the proposal, saying: “We don’t need to create more corrupt politicians.”  They defended the use of some of the existing 513 congressmen to do the task.

Brazilians in the US who favor the proposal’s original text claim that plucking some congressmen from any of Brazil’s 27 states would not be “full representation.”  Brazilian communities are diverse in provenance, they say, and workers deserve a full-time congressman.

Ironically the most shocking news came last week from the proposal’s author, Senator Buarque.  Feeling pressure from his colleagues in the Congress, Buarque told O Globo, “We’re talking about a proposal to be approved not sooner than 10 years,” he said.

Amnesty in Brazil

Brazil’s Senate also approved last week a new amnesty program to legalize the status of undocumented workers already in the country – the majority of them come from Brazil’s South American neighbors.

The program, authored by Congressman William Woo of Sao Paulo, allows every undocumented migrant who entered Brazil during or before November 1, 2008, to become registered and documented through the Department of Labor.  They have 180 days to become documented, starting from the program’s approval date in the Congress.

Local authorities expect that at least 50,000 workers will participate in the program, which will grant a two-year residency card to those who pass a national and international background check.

Congressman Woo is the son of a Chinese father and a Japanese mother.  He was elected a Sao Paulo Congressman with more than 116,000 votes in 2006.

See Portuguese-language coverage by Brazilian media in New England:

Brazilian Times

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