Migration and borders in the Brazilian government

Abstract

While the world experiences a rapid increase in migrations, in many countries nationalist governments with conservative and authoritarian traits are rising to power. Indeed, border enforcement -and even complete frontier closures- have increased around the globe. Brazil is a paramount example of this relentless globalization (Appadurai, 2004). Based on the concept of “border” from Valenzuela (2014b) and García Canclini (2014), this article attempts to provide evidence on some of the Brazilian borders that are capable of generating material and symbolic barriers to the access and integration of immigrants. In Brazil, these barriers have been a state policy at least since Michel Temer took office in 2016, but have been dramatically strengthened during the current administration of Jair Bolsonaro 2019). Within this context, the goal of this article is to develop a reflection that articulates the concept of border with the exacerbated nationalism, particularly present in the political discourse about national security.