Adventures of a Gringa

Brazilians Return: Interview Series

Brazilians living abroad are returning to Brazil in record numbers, in part because of Brazil's strong economy, and in part because of a lack of jobs in Europe and the U.S. Some are seeking entreprenurial opportunities, or taking advantage of Brazil's growing tech space. In this series, I'll interview Brazilians who were living abroad and decided to return home. If you or someone you know would be interested in being profiled in this series, email me at riogringaconsult at gmail dot com.

So far, the Brazilians I've spoken to have returned to be closer to their families and also for jobs. They're thrilled to be back at home and have found great opportunities, though many complained about high prices and adjusting to life back in Brazil.

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Andrea N. lived in New York for ten years, after moving there in 2001. She married her American boyfriend in 2002, and lived in Prospect Heights and the Upper West Side. She had a variety of interesting jobs, from interning at a TV production company, to waitressing, to working as a movie extra, to freelance translating and editing, to doing narration work in English and Portuguese, and working as a production assistant at the TV & Media Department at the Wildlife Conservation Society at the Bronx Zoo. After her job at the zoo, she worked at Columbia University for seven years, working as a development coordinator for Global Initiatives in the fundraising department. While working at Columbia, she also took several elective courses, including Spanish and news writing.

But in the end, she decided to move back to her hometown of Santos, in São Paulo, since her parents were getting older and had health problems. Her parents are better now, but she's happy to be closer to them. She moved with her husband and dog last October, and is currently doing freelance translation, editing, and narration work, as well as teaching English. She loves being near the beach, where she walks her dog every day, and being with family and friends. She also enjoys the weather and eating healthier, since she no longer eats processed food and eats lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. But the move wasn't easy; it was an expensive and bureaucratic process, and she had to bring her dog in the cargo compartment since she's so large, and she sent her belongings in shipping containers. She noticed a change in Brazil since she's been back. "The US has been having such tough times, economically and politically, and though it’s hard to pinpoint exactly how, there’s a pervasive sense that we should be doing much better. In Brazil, where the economy is strong, the middle class is growing, and poverty is on the decline, there’s just a much more optimistic mood in the air," she said.

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Cássia Martins is a Carioca who worked in finance in the U.S. and returned to Rio de Janeiro to follow her dreams as a writer. Born in Petrópolis, she moved to the U.S. when she was a teenager. She got her B.A. in Economics from Boston University, and worked in business for five years before getting her MBA at the University of Pennsylvania. She lived in a number of cities, including Boston, Chicago, Stamford, Philadelphia, Boca Raton, and Miami. After finishing her graduate degree, she decided to return to her hometown of Rio de Janeiro. She spent a year in Brazil, where she wrote her first book, called Born in Rio. After that, she decided to move back to Miami, so she could be closer to her family and promote her book.

But living in Rio was an inspiration. "Besides writing a story about a woman’s quest to uncover her roots, I was really aiming at capturing the culture and energy of Brazil as the plot unfolds," she said. "The beauty and nature of Brazil never seizes to dazzle me, people are friendly, and the Rio lifestyle is a very easy going one." She said that she enjoyed the emphasis on relationships she found in Rio, as opposed to a focus on work and business back in the U.S.  "In the U.S. the first question people usually ask me when they first meet me is 'Where do you work? What did you study?' In Brazil I would often hear 'Where is your boyfriend? How come you are not married?'" she told me. Though she worried about safety and high prices in Rio, one of the other interesting things about going home was seeing the changes taking in place in the city; she says she hears more English in Rio than in Miami, and that she met many foreigners in Brazil for work, not for tourism.

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Adriana R. is one of the trailblazers. She lived in the U.S. for four years, spending a year as an exchange student in San Angelo, Texas, and another three years in Ithaca, New York studying hotel management and working at a hotel. Thirteen years ago, she decided to return to Brazil to be closer to family and friends. Now, she owns her own ecotourism agency, which specializes in trips to Fernando de Noronha, for foreigners who don't speak Portuguese. She loves being close to her loved ones, though she also had a hard time adjusting to "bureaucracy, inefficiency, lack of respect for consumers, slow pace of our law system, and higher prices now that the economy is booming." She commented on some of the challenges she's faced: "It just feels more difficult. Everything here takes longer. It is not always nicer or better, in fact, most of the time, it is just of lower quality and when not, it is extremely expensive. Everything is just so bureaucratic, and therefore we need paperwork for everything."

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Tatiana Perreira lived in Japan for 12 years, and also spent 3 months in Perth, Australia. After she graduated from high school in Brazil, she wanted to be closer to her mother, who moved to Japan after getting divorced. Once she got to Japan, Tatiana started working at a car parts factory, and spent five years working at factories, like many Brazilians do in Japan. She returned to Brazil for a year in 2003, to visit family, study English, and buy a house with her mom. She went back to Japan in 2004, working at factories and saving money. She managed to save enough to study in Australia, which she loved. "Living in Australia was for few years a dream, until I dated an Australian guy who broke my heart so I never really felt like going back there anymore - I still think it's a great country, though," she said. She then returned to Japan, working at factories until 2007, which she got a job as a telemarketer at an international phone company, where she worked for four years.

Her definitive move back to Brazil came for a few reasons. Her sister was getting married, and she and her mom wanted to go to the wedding. She also missed her family and friends, after being away from them for eight years. While she and her mom were planning their return, the 2011 earthquake hit Fukushima. Even though it was 300 kilometers away, her mother felt it and was "freaked out." Tatiana moved back in April 2011, helping her sister plan her wedding. She then went to San Francisco to meet her American boyfriend's family; they'd been dating in Japan, since he's in the military and was stationed in Okinawa. They just recently got married in South Carolina, and are planning a wedding ceremony in Brazil after he gets back from a second deployment in Afghanistan for 7 months. After he finishes his service next year, they may go to the US, or her husband may move to Brazil, where he'd like to start a business.

In Brazil, Tatiana had a hard time finding a job, since she doesn't have a college degree. She started teaching English, and discovered that she really enjoyed it, despite the meager salary. She also dreams of going back to school. She loves being close to her family, which is "priceless," and also feeling at home. "Being able to speak my own language and express myself anytime, anywhere and everywhere I want makes a difference," she said. She doesn't speak fluent Japanese, so she sometimes had a hard time in Japan. She also didn't like the health care system in Japan, and now feels more secure about medical issues in Brazil. She's still getting used to São Paulo, especially the traffic. Even though she's happy back in Brazil, she misses life in Japan. "I could go anywhere easily by train, bus or even by bike. I used to have money to buy whatever I wanted: clothes, shoes, make up, travel -- I've been to 10 countries," she explained. She had friends from all over the world, and admits she was well known in the "Tokyo party community." In Brazil, she has to take precautions with things like jewelry and cell phones because of security. She also finds that everything is much more expensive, since the prices are higher and she's making less money than she did in Japan, even from when she worked at the factories. Still, she says, it's the first time in her life she's had a job she likes, where she's happy to wake up to go to work in the morning.

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Valerie R. lived in Astoria, New York for ten years, the heart of the New York Brazilian community. She worked as a secretary, and went to Parsons to study interior design. She dated a Brazilian, who she lived with for nine years. After her boyfriend finished college, he decided to return to Brazil, and she also went, a year later. She's been back in São Paulo for a year and a half, working as an executive assistant to an executive at an American company. She was happy to see her family, though she misses New York. "I still haven't gotten used to it here; sometimes I still can't believe I'm back," she said. She also tends to compare the two cities a lot. But her professional life in São Paulo is better than it was in New York, and she sees her family all the time.

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Julie, a Paulista, lived in Saint Louis, Missouri for six months. She had grown tired of her life and job at home, and decided to quit her job and sell her car to move to the U.S. She wanted to learn English, and picked Missouri because she thought there wouldn't be any Brazilians, so she'd be forced to learn English faster. But she ended up finding Brazilians, making friends with one who'd lived there for a decade. She studied at the University of Missoui, learning English as a second language and meeting people from all over the world. She also worked as a nanny, which she enjoyed to be able to work with kids and learn about American family life. She decided to move back to Brazil since she was on a student visa, and she didn't want to overstay and live undocumented after she finished her program. She returned to Brazil a little over a year ago, and now works at ABB, an international technology company, as an import/export analyst. She's also had a bit of trouble adapting, having to start over and "familiarize herself with disorganization." In São Paulo, she works a lot, and she misses having time to travel and have free time like she did while she was studying abroad.

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Aline T. lived in Sacramento, California for almost seven years. She worked as an au pair, and then went back to school. She lived with the same host family the whole time she was in the U.S.After she graduated, she had trouble finding a job during the economic crisis and didn't want to babysit, and decided to move back home. She had other friends who had returned home from living abroad and were doing well, so she was more confident about her decision. Now, she's been back for a year and a half. She's finishing her BA, since she had a hard time validating her American college degree. Now that she's back in Brazil, she's had an easier time finding a job because of her fluent English, and has been able to work at several large companies.

Aline likes being closer to her family, and also the "sense of belonging" she gets from voting, paying taxes, and contributing to her retirement account. "Before I was just living in the U.S., but I was not an American," she said. The hardest part about coming back was adapting to a different way of life; she had lived in the suburbs in California, and went back to the city of São Paulo, where she hasn't gotten used to the traffic, the crowds, or the jeitinho. Now that she's working and studying, she has more responsibilities. "Now I can start thinking about buying a car, saving for a house and retirement; before I just needed to save for my next trip or gadget," she explained. She's also excited about Brazil's growing role. "Because of the World Cup in 2014 and Olympics in 2016, there are some great expectations in the country and it has been nice to experience all these changes that it is happening now in the country," she said.

Visa Changes Afoot

Since I last wrote about visas in December, things are changing. On the U.S. side, the pro-tourism lobby had some success with pushing for changes to increase the number of Brazilian tourists. In Brazil, immigration changes are reportedly on the way, as the government seeks to increase professional immigrants, particularly from Europe, and cut down on the number of undocumented immigrants from Haiti and South Asia.

Last Thursday, President Obama announced a number of changes to U.S. tourist visa policy, specifically to benefit high-spending Brazilian and Chinese tourists. Here are the changes that pertain to Brazilians:

• Increase non-immigrant visas in Brazil by 40% this year. That includes the plan already in place to add 50 consular employees in Brazil in 2012, and to emit 1.8 million tourist visas in 2013.
• Speed up the amount of time visa applicants wait for an interview. In Brazil, the goal is to interview 80% of non-immigrant visa applicants within 3 weeks of their application.
• In what is perhaps the biggest change for Brazilians, the State Department will implement a pilot program that will waive the required interview for "low-risk" non-immigrant visa applicants, including "younger or older first-time applicants," and those renewing expired visas. The program is expected to affect tens of thousands of Brazilians and to open up more spots for visa interviewees.
• Consider nominating Brazil to participate in the Visa Waiver Program. This talk has been going on for quite awhile, but now it seems to be getting a little more traction. In order to be considered for the program, Brazil must have a visa rejection rate of 3 percent or less; it's currently 5 percent. Though this will be a lengthy process, the same tourist lobby is pushing hard for the government to really consider Brazil for the visa waiver program.

In Brazil, it is immigration visa policy that's come to the fore. After an increasing amount of Haitians arriving in the Amazon (and even immigrants from the Middle East and South Asia) and a spate of media coverage, the Brazilian government announced that it would close its borders to undocumented migrants. It had been giving out visas and work authorization to the several thousand Haitian migrants that arrived in Acre state. In doing so, it also announced a limited legal immigration program for Haitians, in which the Brazilian consulate in Port-au-Prince will issue 100 visas a month.

The other big news is about proposed changes for skilled professionals looking to move to Brazil. The federal government is putting together a commission to study new visa policies that would benefit foreign professionals, particularly Spaniards and Portuguese, who represent the highest number of skilled professionals moving to Brazil. With the crisis in Europe and Brazil's economy still humming along, the government increased the number of work authorizations by at least 32 percent last year, from January to September, issuing nearly 51,400 work visas. The commission will explore ways to simplify and speed up the visa process, in a bid not only to fill the gap of skilled professionals in the Brazilian workforce, but also, according to Globo, attempt a "new cycle of European immigration to Brazil." Not only is the current process difficult and bureaucratic, but it's also very slow, so often immigrants or temporary workers will simply enter on a tourist visa while they await their papers. As Greg Michener points out, for some there are even more hurdles after getting work papers: validating college degrees, or in his case, his Ph.D, are very painful processes. In short, the changes to help facilitate immigration for skilled professionals have yet to come, but the topic is now on the government's agenda.

Brazilian Expats Series

This week, I'm beginning a series on Brazilians who lived abroad and decided to move back to Brazil. (I'll also cover the latest in visa news from both Brazil and the U.S. in a separate post). If you're a Brazilian who returned home after living abroad who's interested in telling your story, please let me know! Leave a comment or email me directly at riogringaconsult at gmail dot com.

Michel Teló and Brazilian Identity

Michel Teló has become something of a Justin Bieber figure in Brazil: a wildly popular singer who is also reviled by those who see him as cheesy or untalented. But his fame has spread well beyond Brazil, from Europe to the Middle East. The sertanejo (country music) singer's hit "Ai Se Eu Te Pego," (If I Get You) a short, incredibly catchy hit combined with simple choreography, has become a worldwide hit, appearing in Youtube videos in various languages and starring in not one but two Israeli videos (one of soldiers in uniform dancing, and another in a political satire music video). Videos of how to do the choreography are also all over the web. The song became the top selling song on iTunes in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Sweden, Chile, and Argentina, and according to Época, it is now the most-listened to Brazilian song in Youtube history. It also was in the top 10 in Belgium, Germany, France, Holland, Poland, and Switzerland.

 

Part of the reason for the song's worldwide popularity is because several famous athletes danced to the choregraphy to celebrate wins or in the locker room, namely Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar, as well as Rafael Nadal. After that, soccer players from Brazil, Europe and Turkey starting using the dance to celebrate goals. Denver Nuggets players from Brazil, Spain, Italy, Greece, Russia, and the U.S. also danced to the song in a video shot at the team gym.

The popularity of both the song and the singer lie partially in the soccer connection, as well as the shared cultural lines between Latin America and Europe. Though Teló released the song today in English, it seems unlikely it will gain much traction in North America, but it does seem possible he'll continue to maintain his fame, at least for a little while, in Europe and South America.

 

Despite Brazilians' varying opinions on Teló and his music, it seems he's an example of the enormous potential of Brazilian soft power. As Forbes columnist Anderson Antunes points out in a profile on Teló, several Brazilian stars have tried to go global without success. While many Teló fans may not even understand the song lyrics, or even know what kind of music he sings (I've seen several references to Ai Se Eu Te Pego as "samba"), they know he's from Brazil.

Brazil isn't just seen as an economic heavyweight, or a growing political power in the developing world. Part of its power lies in soft power, of which cultural exports beyond soccer and Carnival could become increasingly more important. From 2005 to 2010, Brazil's soft power ranking doubled, making it the soft power leader in Latin America in 2010 and the 4th most powerful among developing countries. Brazilians were ranked as the second "coolest" nationality, based on an international 2011 survey by website Badoo. A 2011 country branding index measuring the degree to which people admire other countries based on a number of factors--including culture--put Brazil in 20th place, the highest among developing countries. Even international Google search queries about Brazil are on the rise. With the World Cup and Olympics approaching, there are even more opportunities for Brazilian stars to make it big abroad, especially in Europe.

Despite the international appeal, elements of Brazilian popular culture like Michel Teló are somewhat controversial in Brazil. A growing middle class has created something of a cultural divide between the traditional middle class and the new "C class." Music like Teló's represents the new middle class, one from suburban or rural areas with an affinity for entertainment traditionally popular among the working class. In other words, while Brazil's lower income families expand their wealth through increased wages and more employment opportunities, their cultural preferences tend to stay the same, which can make the old middle class elite uncomfortable. But as with other Brazilian cultural trends that began amongst the country's poor or working classes, it can also gradually permeate the country's culture. Sociologist Heloísa Buarque de Hollanda explained in an article about Teló that Teló's music came from a part of society that now has greater legitimacy, and that this part of society from city outskirts and from rural areas have begun to have a greater influence on culture and consumption. Says the article: "The periphery has become a center of innovation in music, behavior, and even fashion."

In an opinion piece entitled "Is Brazil embarrassed by Brazil?" for website Brainstorm9, tech entrepreneur Bob Wollheim explains how Teló's popularity, particularly through social media, has exposed this cultural tension:

"It's interesting that social media has become an enormous mirror for us, a huge window where we are all exposed, everything there for whoever wants to look. The subjects are naked! Orkut, Facebook, Twitter, Google +, it doesn't matter where we are, we're there ridiculing our own idiosyncracies, our ways, our flexible ethics, our 'do as I say, not as I do,' our Gerson's law, our Brazilian jeitinho, our musical and literary tastes, our humor, our education, our religion, our syncretism, our habits, our customs, our languages, our prejudices, our racism, our originality, our inventiveness, in other words - all of our Brazilianness!"

So while Spaniards and Turks sing "Ai Se Eu Te Pego" and German soccer players dance to Michel Teló, they're unaware that one of Brazil's latest cultural phenomena is actually revealing an long-debated question about what "real" Brazilian culture should be--and whether to celebrate it or reject it.

The Corruption Question

It's been a good year for President Rousseff, exceeding the expectations of voters and even wowing some skeptics. With a record approval rating of over 70 percent, she exceeded Lula's approval rating after the first year of his presidency by more than 20 points. While there are a number of factors for her popularity, including a strong economy with low unemployment, and proving herself as an independent leader out of Lula's shadow, another important factor has been her crackdown on corruption.

During her first year in office, Dilma sacked six ministers after they came under fire for corruption charges. In the federal government as a whole, 564 public officials were fired for wrongdoing in 2011, though this number is not exactly new: in the past 8 years, over half of the 3,533 public officials who were fired from the federal government lost their jobs because of corruption. Comedy blog Kibe Loco produced a series of videos parodying Dilma's crackdown on corrupt ministers, where an actor dressed in drag would imitate phone calls to her ministers, in which she would yell, using all sorts of profane language, making the ministers cry, and then soothing them like a mother. Dilma's intolerance for corruption was welcomed by many Brazilians, particularly during a year where thousands took to the streets to protest corruption. Popular support to fight corruption also came after the Clean Record Law was passed in 2010 after 2 million Brazilians signed petitions in favor of the law, which aimed to bar candidates accused of misdoing from taking office.

But the question is - what now?

The Supreme Court ruled that the Ficha Limpa law would not count towards the 2010 election, and after ruling on several individual cases, the court allowed at least 6 "ficha suja" congressmen and senators to take office, including notorious Senator Jader Barbalho, who took office in late December. (His son came with him, and proceeded to stick out his tongue and make faces for the press, which antagonized the already dismayed Brazilians opposed to his inauguration). It's unclear if the law will be applied to the 2012 municipal elections.

Dilma has made it clear that she won't tolerate corruption in her cabinet, and a minister shake up in the next few weeks should likely bring in new ministers picked by Dilma, rather than carry overs from Lula's administration. But of the six who left office in disgrace, how many are under investigation and will actually be punished? Cases of ministers returning embezzled funds are few and far between; one of the few is that of former Tourism Minister Pedro Novais, who returned the government funds (worth R$2,156) that he used to pay for a sex motel.

Former Sports Minister Orlando Silva is allegedly planning on running for city councilman in São Paulo in 2012. He wouldn't be the first disgraced politician to come back to life; former President Fernando Collor de Mello, who was impeached in 1992, was elected to the Senate in 2006 and 2010. Notorious politician José Sarney, who also served as president, was first elected to the Senate in 1995, and has served three terms as president of the Senate, a position he currently holds. Another notorious politician, Paulo Maluf, who was on Interpol's "red" list, is currently serving his third term as a federal congressman.

After Dilma's sweep, some are hopeful that it could mean change in Brasília. But without holding wrongdoers responsible and punishing them for their crimes, will corrupt public officials simply try harder to hide what they're doing? And if the Ficha Limpa Law isn't implemented, or if the Supreme Court eventually rules it unconstitutional, will corrupt politicians continue to return to office? Worse yet - will everything acabar em pizza?

Pedro Franceschi, Brazil's Tech Wunderkind

While he may seem like just an unassuming 15-year-old high school kid from Rio de Janeiro, Pedro Franceschi is in fact one of Brazil's rising tech stars. He started learning about computers playing on his dad's Mac when he was just three and started learning programming when he was eight, and became what TEDx referred to as one of the world's youngest hackers, when he began jailbreaking iPhones and iPods at the age of 11.

Pedro began to explore the possibility of unblocking mobile devices when he managed to get an iPod Nano to run video, and then began to jailbreak other devices. He began charging schoolmates R$50 to unlock their phones and iPods, but gained national and international attention when he began developing mobile apps. First, at age 12, he created Quick2GPwner, which received 17,000 downloads in just five days. He then created an app called QuickOiB, which allows you to install Linux on an iPhone or iPod Touch, which received 25,000 downloads in two weeks. He soon gained attention in Rio's tech community, and began working as a software developer at Brainjuice in Rio.

In 2010, Pedro spoke at Rio's TEDx conference about his achievements, giving him even more opportunities to develop apps. He got a job as a developer at Sync Mobile soon after, where he worked for a year, and now works at M4U, which provides mobile payment systems. He also continued developing his own apps -- all the while going to school.

 

Since then, Pedro has been developing more apps, like ones to more easily scroll or change between iPhone apps, and an app called iUsers to create a multi-user solution for iPads, like you would use on a shared computer. Also, Pedro documents his new projects on his blog and on Twitter.

Pedro was in the headlines again this week when he managed to implement a solution--without jailbreaking--to get Siri, the iPhone 4S voice recognition system, to understand Portuguese. Though the 4S was recently launched in Brazil, Siri doesn't work with Portuguese yet. So Pedro managed to reverse engineer the API for Nuance, voice recognition software used by Apple, and got it to work so that Siri recognizes Portuguese, responds correctly in English, and displays her answers in Portuguese.

 

I had a chance to catch up with Pedro before New Year's, and he was kind enough to share some thoughts.

Interview

When you finish high school, what and where would you like to study?

I'd like to do computer science. I'm thinking of PUC-Rio or UFRJ, but if the sky was the limit, I'd possibly pick MIT.

How many hours a day do you spend working? What do you like to do when you're not working or in school?

I spend almost all of my free time working. When I'm not in school, I'm working, and when I'm not working, I'm in school. But working and programming is what I most like to do, so I don't see a problem with it. Eventually I do go out with friends, of course.

You've worked for several tech companies. What types of projects did you do?

The majority of the projects I develop are related to the iPhone. At Sync Mobile, for example, I developed an events app called LiveSync, which won the Campuseiros Empreendem Award. [This is an award from Brazil's Campus Party, the biggest tech event in the country]  At M4U, where I work now, I develop mobile payment apps for the iPhone.

Have you ever been in touch with Apple? If you had the opportunity to work for Apple one day, would you want to?

I have, yes. However, I don't know if I'd work there. It really must be a unique experience, but at the same time it's a very complicated place to work. You need to deal with all types of situations when you work at a company of that kind, and with the history of quality that Apple has. But I believe at the end of the day I would end up accepting the opportunity.

Why do you think it's important to fiddle with Apple's operating system, since it's such a closed system?

The cool thing about working with the iOS is to prove that it can do things that Apple doesn't allow, and that's a big motivator. An example of this getting Siri to understand Portuguese.

What do you think are the advantages and challenges of working with technology in Brazil?

The advantage is that this market isn't very developed in Brazil, and there are really so many cool things that you can do. At the same time, one of the problems with this market is that since it hasn't been as developed yet, there's not enough investment for it to grow, though that's changing with time.

Read the interview in Portuguese after the jump.