Brazil today and tomorrowJoyce, L. E. Elliott (Lilian Elwyn Elliott)
History
Brazil today and tomorrow
Joyce, L. E. Elliott (Lilian Elwyn Elliott)
Brazil; Brazil -- Economic conditions
Where is the future immigrant of Brazil to come from, and to what part
of the country is he to go? I have put this question frequently to
Brazilians, and have almost invariably received an answer to this
effect: “We want white immigrants, and they can settle healthily either
in the cool south of Brazil or on the high interior uplands.” The
sertões of Matto Grosso and Goyaz will not attract foreign settlers
until there is better communication; the land is there, but the markets
are not available. But there is land and to spare still in São Paulo
with its network of railways and good riverways, and there is excellent
cereal and cattle land in Paraná, Santa Catharina and Rio Grande do Sul,
for the northern-born, who cannot face a semi-tropical climate: for him
who can face it—as the Texas cotton grower should do—there are extensive
regions farther north in Pernambuco and her sister states. The extreme
north is not fitted for white, Anglo-Saxon or Latin, families, and
although single men can live healthily in such latitudes for many years,
the life of such tropic exiles is not good for the individual or for
society. Coloured or Asiatic colonists have been suggested for the
Amazonian valley, but it is at least doubtful whether the Brazilian
Government would favour such plans, or whether, in view of the fertility
of the native population, such introductions would be necessary; saving
babies by improved sanitation would solve the problem better than any
other method of populating.
The question of where white immigration is to come from is a difficult
one; after the close of the European War, there was an exodus from
Russia and the most troubled regions of Central Europe. But on the other
hand the formation of new States created an appeal to national feeling
that kept at home as creative builders many men who would otherwise have
been, probably, among the emigrants. São Paulo received in 1920 nearly
45,000 immigrants, the bulk of all entrants, and has added considerably
to the southerly Japanese colonies producing rice, silk and tea; and the
conclusion, in late 1921, of an emigration treaty between Brazil and
Italy immediately set flowing a strong tide of Italian workers.
Many ex-service men with camp experiences are still looking about them
for the country offering most to farmers and stock-raisers. To such men
there are few parts of the world which offer as much as does Brazil,
with her sincere invitation to foreigners, square dealing, stability,
and rewards for enterprise. The lack of development along certain
definite lines is Brazil’s best recommendation to the enterprising and
persistent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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