Document Type

Article

Article Version

Publisher's PDF

Publication Date

Summer 2009

Abstract

Sugar cane has remained central to the Brazilian economy, and increasingly so as rising petroleum prices spark an increase in the demand for ethanol. As a world leader in sugar cane based ethanol production, Brazil has a need for low-skilled, low-wage workers in this industry. As petroleum prices rise, and with them the demand for biofuels, the incentives to produce more sugar cane in Brazil have fueled the demand for labor on plantations and in sugar mills. In Brazil's sugar-producing regions of the central and southeastern states, the labor demands in the fields are primarily filled by migrants. However, these migrants are not foreigners, but Brazilians who migrate seasonally from northern and northeastern states such as Maranhão, Bahia, Alagoas, Pará, and Minas Gerais. Although these workers are Brazilians traveling and working in their home country, they face many of the difficulties that international migrants in other countries face, including discrimination, poor wages, and inhumane working conditions. This article discusses theoretical approaches to domestic sugar cane labor migration in Brazil.

Comments

Copyright 2009 Copyright by Ahead Publishing House (imprint: Okcir Press) and authors. All Rights Reserved.

Archived with the permission of copyright holder. Original article available online at http://www.okcir.com/18HAVII4F2009.html

Publication Title

Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge

Published Citation

Terry-Ann Jones, “Migration Theory in the Domestic Context: North-South Labor Movement in Brazil,” in Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, Volume VII, Issue 4, Fall 2009, pp. 5-14

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