Find out how many of your countrymen are living around the world

I was reading an article 3-4 years ago regarding Brazil where it was discussed the low number of professionals working in Brazil and the problems that creates. On average a country has app 3% of non-citizens in their work force. This is of course due to a number of reasons - they attract professionals they lack themselves or people move by themselves because there are good joob opportunities they are unable to find in their home contries for whatever profession they have.

In Brazil there is only 0,3% of their workforce that is non-brazilian. I would claim that there is few countries that need some foreign influence more than Brazil but they have made it so difficult for foreigners to work in this country that most people give up to try.

Now, this was written during the hight of the offshore oil boom and how difficult the goverment made it to use foreign labour even when it was impossible to find qualified Brazilians to do the job but i would claim that most professions in Brazil would benefit a lot by having some competition from people from other contries just to learn.

Unfortunately i hear all the time from even well educated Brazilans that they have to be careful because "the foreigners are here just to steal our natural resources"

The single largest problem for expats living and working in Brazil are the restrictive and highly protectionist laws that govern foreigners. For example, Decreto/Lei 6815/80 Estatuto de Estrangeiro, which was written toward the end of the Military Dictatorship and reflects that authoritarian attitude. It has remained virtually unchanged until today.

Many other Brazilian laws were also enacted around that time and had the net effect of closing the doors completely. Brazilian politician constantly say they're going to reform the laws, but that's all it is, just talk.

The Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil was enacted in 1988. All laws, regardless of when written, must conform to the Constitution. Most of them don't conform even 27 years after the Constitution was written. Many other laws, especially regarding work are vague and depend on other laws that were never written. That's what happens in a country that is governed by people who are POLITICALLY ILLITERATE.

Cheers,
James      Expat-blog Experts Team