ABSTRACT
The ethno-racial composition of the US has changed considerably due to increased migration from Latin America, Asia and Africa. Recent research on immigrants from these regions indicates that they are challenging current US racial conceptions. 1 Because Brazilians are some of America’s newest immigrants, less is known about them compared to other Latin American immigrants. Furthermore, comparative research on the social construction of race in the US and Brazil has increased as scholars have explored the subtleties of racial classification and inequality in both places. 2 This chapter merges research on Brazilian immigrants in the US with comparative studies of race in the US and Brazil, combined with an examination of Brazilian immigrants’ perceptions of the Latino and Hispanic ethno-racial categories. Relying on data from interviews with forty-nine Brazilian return migrants (Brazilians who immigrated to the US and subsequently returned to Brazil), this chapter argues that three factors influenced their ethno-racial self-classifications: (1) participants’ confusion about US racial categories; (2) participants’ perception of a difference between Latinos and Hispanics; and (3) participants’ external classification as Hispanic by Americans. The following discussion will attempt to provide a better understanding of Brazilian immigrants’ US ethno-racial classifications, specifically with regard to the Latino and Hispanic categories. Understanding how and why Brazilian immigrants choose to self-classify using these categories has implications for their personal, social and political relationships with Latinos in the US. This is particularly important now as Latinos are the largest ethnic minority in the US.
