Acculturation and employment dynamics in a Brazilian NGO aimed at Haitian refugees’ social integration

Abstract

Since the earthquake in 2010, over one hundred thousand Haitians have migrated to Brazil. The issue of employment and cultural integration of refugees received intense attention from civil society between the years of 2016 and 2018, a period of economic crisis and double-digit unemployment rates in Brazil. This article aims to understand how the employment and social integration processes were combined into the activities of an NGO that works with Haitian refugees. It also investigates how these activities were adjusted to changing economic circumstances in the host country. We adopted Berry’s theoretical approach (Berry, 1997) and explored in depth the activities organized by the NGO: intercultural seminars, conversation circles, Portuguese courses, seminars for employers, mediated job interviews, and company visits after employment. We conducted in-depth interviews with the administrators, non-participant observation of the activities and documental analysis. The data was treated through content analysis (Bardin, 2008), allowing us to capture how the activities were implemented, their goals, and the organizational values that underpinned them. This study expands the literature on refugee integration by presenting the processes of employment and acculturation as inseparable phenomena, that precede or follow one another according to the socioeconomic condition of the host country and the profile of the migratory wave. By adopting the perspective of the NGO administrators, it also provides a practical contribution to legislators and social entrepreneurs who desire to structure programs for refugees that are regular, cohesive and coherent.