Syrian refugees in Brazil

Labor Integration in the Absence of Specific Public Policies and the Role of Civil Society Organizations

Abstract

Brazil is the main receiver of Syrian nationals seeking for asylum in Latin America. In spite of the distance from Syria comparatively to European countries, Brazil is often chosen as a destiny country due to two main reasons: the humanitarian visa granted to people affected by the instability in Syria, that demands less requirements than a regular visa, and the possibility of acquiring a working permit even before the refuge status is granted. However, Syrian refugees/refuge seekers face challenges in accessing labor market due to language barriers, difficulties in proving previous professional qualifications and the discrimination against refugees of arab origin. The public sphere is by law responsible for promoting integration policies for refugees, and has covered issues such as juridical assistance for this population, but doesn’t have clear actions in integrating refugees in the labor market. The organized civil society realizes a valorous work in this sense, with many initiatives to assist refugees inserting in the labor market, such as language courses, resume creating and raising of awareness to companies about the hiring of refugees. Since these institutions don’t count on enough financial support from the public sphere, they vastly rely on volunteer workforce, which despite being very helpful, many times is not specialized in dealing with refuge issues. By performing a qualitative review of literature in the subject, extracted from books, articles, journal articles, doctorate thesis, bachelor thesis and newspaper databases both in Portuguese and in English, this research intends to figure out  how the civil society organizations are assisting Syrian refugees to integrate in the labor market in Brazil, filling the gap left by the public power, and often suffering from overburdening.