Voices and Looks of Brazilian Migrants in Europe

Abstract

Despite the increasing migration of Brazilians to Europe, little space has been given for these individuals to textualize their life experiences, since they are, in general, represented by official “spokespersons” (experts and government agents, among others) or reduced to numbers and statistics. Against this trend, this paper aims to examine and compare in the light of French Discourse Analysis, with incursions in Dialogical Discourse Analysis, three life stories produced by Brazilian migrants that live or have lived in France and/or in Portugal and/or in England, so as to find out their discursive representations (of themselves, of the others, of the world). Since each individual is unique and his/her story is particular, the results reveal differences in the way of telling and evaluating the migratory experience, but also allow to apprehend common aspects, such as the definition of Brazil as a lack: lack of opportunities, lack of life quality, lack of a favorable political situation, which leads people to displacement and turns Europe into a “safe haven” for them, making a return project impracticable.