Return and Difference: Brazilian Migration in the Dongguan-Vale dos Sinos Circuit

• Grant number: 24/13623-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: January 01, 2025
• End date: March 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Urban Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Igor José de Renó Machado
• Grantee: Guilherme de Lima
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 25/04017-2 - Returning from China: Brazilian Migration between Dongguan and Vale dos Sinos, BE.EP.MS

Abstract

The project aims to analyze the return migration of Brazilians from China, specifically from the city of Dongguan (ž) in the south of the Asian country. Originating from the leather-footwear industry in the Vale do Rio dos Sinos, in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazilian immigration to China began in the 1990s following the closure of Brazilian factories, a result of crises in the sector. The Brazilian community in Dongguan remained stable until 2020, the year of the COVID-19 pandemic. With lockdown health policies and mass layoffs, many Brazilians returned from Dongguan. We intend to reflect, based on fieldwork, on the dimensions of the return and its impact on the lives of Brazilian migrants, especially through accounts of their time in China and the nuances of constructing difference in the Asian country, as well as the estrangement and familiarity upon returning to their country of origin. Furthermore, to contextualize it, it will be necessary to connect the migration process in question to the theoretical-conceptual field of the anthropology of migration and to examine the historicity of the Vale do Rio dos Sinos region and its integration into the national and international leather-footwear market, and finally, to evaluate the competitiveness of Chinese markets and their impact on the Brazilian leather-footwear industry.