Giving Compass' Take:

• Migration Policy Institute gives a full overview of how Brazil became such a multicultural society and a hub of global migration, going back to the 16th century all the way through modern day.

• What lessons can the U.S. take from Brazil's migration policies? Even though the country has generally been welcoming to refugees, resettlement for such people have not been without challenges. In 2017, legislation established rules against discrimination and xenophobia, which should be examined closely.

• For those looking to dig into the numbers, here's how data collaboratives can solve some migration issues.

Approaching the third decade of the 21st century, Brazil continues to be a center of global migration. In 2017, nearly 736,000 registered immigrants lived in Brazil, while many hundreds of thousands more were in the country without formal documentation. Portuguese are the largest immigrant population, followed far behind by those from Japan, Italy, Paraguay, and Bolivia. In recent years, Koreans, Angolans, Paraguayans, and Nigerians have been entering in growing numbers.

Over the past decade, humanitarian migration has returned as an important issue in Brazil, just as it had been during the World War II era. Following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Brazil granted humanitarian visas and permanent residency to roughly 98,000 Haitians, though some 30,000 have reportedly since relocated due in part to Brazil’s economic recession. In December 2014, 28 Latin American countries and three territories adopted the Brazil Declaration and Plan of Action to maintain high standards of protection and create innovative solutions, such as new visa categories, for refugees and displaced persons. These policies were designed to accommodate the growth of those in need of protection, which in Brazil nearly doubled between 2015 and 2016, from roughly 36,000 to 68,000. In 2016, Brazil received more than 10,000 new asylum claims, nearly 7,000 of which were from Venezuelans followed by smaller numbers of Cubans, Angolans, Haitians, and Syrians.

Despite its welcoming attitude toward humanitarian migrants overall, Brazil has taken in few refugees (less than 1,000 between 2001 and 2016) through its resettlement program, which relies on funding from UNHCR. At the 2016 UN Leaders’ Summit on Refugees, Brazil committed to receive 1,500 people affected by the Syrian crisis by combining humanitarian visas with private sponsorships. The Brazilian government also agreed to establish a state-funded resettlement program for 3,000 Syrians and displaced Central Americans by the end of 2018.

Read the full article about the making of a multicultural society in Brazil by Shari Wejsa and Jeffrey Lesser at Migration Policy Institute.